On the one hand, I understand why Lib Dem support has collapsed. You can’t just say one thing (‘we’ll scrap tuition fees’) and then do another (‘let’s treble them’). Politicians should be punished for lies. But, then again, all parties are guilty of them; it’s just that the Lib Dems provide the most recent and perhaps the most flagrant example.

In the long term, I’m not sure that a whole generation has been put off the Lib Dems for life. I think that joining the Conservatives in coalition was the responsible thing to do. Clegg could hardly have propped up a discredited, unpopular Labour government and, besides, the mathematics behind a so-called “rainbow coalition” were problematic, to say the least. Labour had no divine right to call upon the Lib Dems’ support.

If the coalition can wipe out the deficit and achieve growth, surely even the most strident critic would have to give the Lib Dems some credit further down the line. But that is a big “if”, I grant you.