Can Nick Clegg sing the blues?

Nick Clegg’s office already has a Downing Street feel to it. Since becoming leader of the Liberal Democrats, he has had it redecorated so that portraits of old party leaders hang on the staircase up to his room, as portraits of former prime minsters do in No. 10. It starts plausibly enough, with portraits of Palmerston, Gladstone and Asquith. The gravitas is somewhat lost when we get to Charles Kennedy and Ming Campbell. But neither came as close to power as Mr Clegg is now. If the polls are right, then he might be just weeks away from government.

The idea of a Lib-Con coalition is not one any Conservative relishes. But there is a limit to how long even the most optimistic Tory can keep ignoring opinion polls. For the past three months most polls have pointed to a hung parliament — and the trend is, if anything, reinforcing this view. Soon, Mr Clegg will be granted what his predecessors dreamt of: a platform in televised election debates where he will be given equal status to the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition.

If Mr Clegg is to govern with the Conservatives, or simply win seats from them (most Lib Dem targets are Tory-held), then he must learn to sing the blues. He is in good voice in his Westminster office, with a blue tie, saying that his liberalism is more Tory-friendly than one might think. ‘I like to think that Conservative voters who feel there is something flakey about the Cameron-Osborne leadership might feel there is a consistency and conviction in my leadership. I do understand that they feel it’s their turn, that they feel a sense of entitlement. But what has surprised me is this ideological vacuum at the heart of the Conservatives.’

The words ‘pot’ and ‘kettle’ may well spring to the mind of any Conservative listening to a Liberal Democrat talking about a lack of principles.