It takes a special sort of bare-faced nerve to be a LibDem politician right now. Extraordinarily, they ask us to agree that the Coalition is being molded by them in positive ways and would, by inference, be ‘worse’ without them.

But the Coalition in fact exists solely because the LibDems are part of it. Without active LibDem involvement, there would be No Coalition… and no Tory-led Government. Are we seeing here a repeat of the trick which Cameron and Osborne have already pulled off in justification for draconian cuts to budgets and services?

The Tories, with LibDem complicity, appear to have convinced most of us that, despite global markets, Labour was single-handedly responsible for the UK’s current grim economic outlook.

And now, with similar duplicity, Clegg and co are telling us that LibDems are a civilising influence on the very thing they are at the heart of – the Coalition.  This is a classic ‘cake and eat it’ situation.

Yet once again there is a sense of Labour missing the moment;  of being too late for anything except rearguard action.

Let now be the time to say it loud and clear:   The LibDems are irredeemably part of, not a mitigating influence on, the Coalition.

And any LibDem MP who disputes this is self-deluding (or plain self-serving) and, much more importantly, trying to mislead the public.

The only honourable action for LibDem MPs  who want to mitigate the Tory-led Coalition’s actions is to cross the floor to Labour, now.  Then the Coalition will disintegrate and be no more.

And the only feasible response to this nonsense about LibDems mitigating Coalition policies is a massively loud shout of Rubbish! 

LibDems are ‘the Coalition’ as much as are the Conservatives.