Give Clegg credit

Nick Clegg’s triumphant performance in the first televised leaders’ debate has already faded in the public imagination. Back then, Lib Dems spoke breathlessly about overtaking Labour as the nation’s second largest party. But a general election in which they lost more seats than they gained has dampened that optimism, and recent opinion polls have all but extinguished it. Were an election held tomorrow, it is suggested, they would stand to lose a further two thirds of their seats. No longer an insurgent force acting against the Conservatives, Mr Clegg is presiding over a party which fears disappearing altogether.

It’s easy to mock Nick Clegg — it was David Cameron’s favourite pastime in the days when they were in competition, not coalition. But as the Lib Dem leader takes the reins of government (while Mr Cameron relaxes in Cornwall) we are reminded of just how much he has achieved. Asked this week whether he could have foreseen being in power only a few months ago, Mr Clegg gave a one-word response: ‘No.’ His candour is commendable. Though Clegg often argued, in opposition, that he could lead his party into government, it’s doubtful he ever believed it. That he is now deputy Prime Minister, and the first liberal to hold the fort of state since David Lloyd George in 1922, is in itself remarkable.

The British public may have created the conditions for a coalition government, but Clegg can take much of the credit. Under his leadership, the Lib Dems have jettisoned the old tendency towards tax-and-spend policies and placed a new emphasis on fiscal restraint, lower taxes and public service reform. By the time the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives began negotiations this May, there was far more uniting the two parties than dividing them.