Who would the Lib Dems really prefer to work with?

Though they didn’t call them ‘red lines’, the Liberal Democrats did spend yesterday making clear the things they won’t accept if they have to work with the Tories in another coalition after the 2015 general election. Today’s Financial Times sets out a line that the party is apparently happy to cross: the EU referendum that the Tories have promised as their own ‘red line’. Listening to Nick Clegg huff and puff his way through the Today programme, you’d have been forgiven for thinking he was a bit annoyed that he was being asked once again about his party’s own position on a referendum: inconveniently, it was suggested that this wasn’t really enough. Clegg didn’t respond particularly well to these questions, but it doesn’t really matter if the Lib Dems do or don’t promise a referendum, as unless they end up in coalition with Labour, they’ll go along with a vote anyway.