As Sunder Katwala tweeted* this evening, years from now children will ask: Daddy what were you doing the weekend the Liberal Democrats were winning the election?
Tonight’s Yougov poll reports that the Liberals are in the lead on 33%, a point ahead of the Conservatives with Labour languishing on 26%. If the election actually produced these results on a uniform swing (which it won’t) we’d have a ticket to Crisisville as the Tories would win 251 seats, Labour 230 and the Liberal Democrats 137. Hello electoral reform!
So what the hell is going on? Obviously the exposure on the national stage – and the opportunity to look an equal player rather than a tagged-on afterthought – was an enormous boost for Nick Clegg, better still has been the tsunami of free media and positive coverage that followed all of which has helped foster a sense that it’s actually perfectly respectable to vote Liberal Democrat.
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