What happens if Nick Clegg grows a pair and takes the Lib Dems out of the coalition?

[jenroy29]

Thats it really?

Clegg has never had a 'pair' he's a complete wimp. If he leaves the coalition, his party will be in the political wilderness for years, as it has been.

The man is 'haunted' knowing that the shit party he represents is at its lowest ebb.

He's a complete excuse of a man, I can think of men with balls,and they are not remotely like him!

He won't. His is the party that has been pushing for PR since God was a toddler. PR means hung parliaments as standard so, if the LDs pull out of the very first real crack anyone's had a coalition for decades, they're showing that coalition and PR by implication is a bad idea. He's signed up his party for 5 years and even made it more difficult for the government to be voted out... bigger majority. By getting all the pain out of the way early on in the parliament his gamble is that, in four years' time, the picture will have improved considerably.

the Tories could survive for many months as a minority. (If no one wanted an erection/election)

The "walk under the bus"question is relevant for all of us including Mr Clugg.

Well, it will be a cold day in hell won't it?

Then we wouldn't be so very far off another General Election... bring it on.

I'm not sure how long Nick Clegg can continue as Deputy Leader - he looks close to a breakdown to me, I don't know if anyone else thinks so?

An interesting point will be just after the AV referendum. Given the absence of any big educational campaign by Lab or LibDem to get the public behind AV, it seems perhaps quite likely that AV will get rejected. A lot of LibDems will then say that the only thing that justified their patnership with the Conservatves has failed to materialise and they are therefore not happy to stay in govt. Then there is the possibility of a LibDem split that makes the Cons or the residue of the Coalition into a minority govt. Clegg will have to stay with the tories: there is nowhere else left for him.

Good point. A lot of the LibDems really aren't natural bedfellows with the Tories - most of them did vote against the trebling of students' tuition fees, despite Vince Cable's best efforts - and tension seems to be building.

But the cuts and the changes will go ahead anyway.

There is next to no chance of the Liberals leaving the coalition as it would cause there to be another general election which would be a disaster because:

1. Our poll rating is low
2. Lack of funds to fight a general election.

Also we are committed to proportional representation and need to show that coalitions can work.

The country would also be torn apart on the capital markets.

Is it a possibility that labour may eventually entice the lib dems to join them in a new coalition? Or is that too simplistic?

Hodsspur makes a good point. LibDems have been promoting PR since their inception. And as such they will either have to be in a coalition with the Tories or Labour.

If they leave the coalition less than a year after they "came to power", their chances of winning the AV vote is nil. As it is, many people are waking up to the fact that coalition politics isn't all its cracked up to be and I sense a lack of enthusiasm to vote in a change which increases our chances of having coalitions.