The next few months will be both difficult and exciting for Nick Clegg. He could become the most important politician in the country and prop up the largest party at the next election.
I think it’s difficult for him because he can’t win either way. He has said that he’ll support the party with the biggest mandate in the event of a hung parliament. This is very clever because it gives him leeway to support the party with the most number of seats or the most number of votes.
However I don’t think this will wash with the electorate. Clegg should be more open with the electorate about his intentions at the next election. Sitting on the fence is not good enough Nick. I know you want to be Prime Minister but it is unrealistic. The odds are stacked against you and you should pin your colours to the mast. The voters won’t be taken for fools.
Why? A hung parliament isn’t guaranteed and if I was Clegg I would do the same thing, wait and see how the ground lies on the day after election night. But it is fairly obvious that his first option must be to explore coalition talks with whichever party has the largest share of the vote, to do otherwise would be a mockery of democracy