The biggest threat to the coalition

News has just broken that three Lib Dem councilors in Cheshire have quit the party in protest at the government’s planned cuts. Now, councilors leave parties on a relatively regular basis and this news is hardly going to shake the foundations of the coalition.

But Lib Dem discomfort, and the unbalancing effect it threatens to have on the coalition, remains the biggest single threat to the coalition. A YouGov poll earlier this week had the Lib Dems all the way down to 11 percent, their lowest rating since the last days of Ming Campbell’s leadership. If that number ticks down any lower before Lib Dem conference then the chances of grassroots’ unease at being in government with the Tories breaking into the open would be heightened significantly.