If the Lib Dems could hold the balance of power in the next parliament, then they should be subject to the same level of scrutiny as the two major parties

With another poll showing the Tories short of the lead they need to be sure of a majority—ICM for the Sunday Telegraph has the Tories on 38, Labour on 31 and the Lib Dems on 21—we are going to hear even more about a hung parliament and the role of the Lib Dems; I can’t remember any Lib Dem leader getting as much media attention as Nick Clegg has had these past four days. But if the Lib Dems are a potential party of government, then they should be a subject to a whole another level of scrutiny. For example, in the Newsnight education debate, David Laws implied that the Lib Dems would ringfence spending on the NHS when Vince Cable has explicitly ruled that out. If there was such a difference of opinion between two senior front benchers on the Labour or Tory side, it would be written up as a splits story.