It was inevitable after a night like that. Someone somewhere would call for Nick Clegg to resign. The defeated leader of Nottingham's Lib Dems, Gary Long, was the first to the microphone. If he got the backing of 74 local parties there would have to be a leadership contest. But where are they? And who support such an idea? And who would run against Clegg?
What is striking so far is that those councillors who lost in Sheffield and Liverpool and Hull gave their leader and the Coalition their backing. So too did backbench rebels Mike Hancock and Adrian Saunders...and Chris Huhne, who was widely thought to be "on manoeuvres" after his clash over the Cabinet table with David Cameron and George Osborne...and Tim Farron the party's president and young pretender.
So, for now the pressure is not for the Coalition to end or Clegg to go but for him to fight harder and more publicly for Lib Dem policies and against what he himself called this morning "a return to Thatcherism".
Stand by, therefore, for more Coalition rows on the NHS, on banking reform, on immigration and tax. Standby for less ministerial chumminess and more business-like negotiations.
Don't hold your breath though for a change of leader or an end to the Coalition.
Most Liberal Democrats will try first to prove - in Paddy Ashdown's words - that "compromise is not betrayal".
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/nickrobinson/2011/05/whither_the_coa.html
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