If you go into a coalition government as the junior partner then you are obviously forced to compromise. The problem is that it's hard to see what the Lib Dems are getting out of this "partnership". When in coalition with Labour in the Scottish Parliament they could at least claim that they managed to scap tuition fees (even though they simply replaced it with a "Graduate Endowment Tax"). Not increasing university tuition fees should have been one of several non-negotiable conditions for Nick Clegg to stipulate before entering into an agreement with the Tories. The pre-election image of him holding up a poster that shows his promise to vote against rises just makes him look like a fanny. An astute Lib Dem leader with foresight would have now been in a position to claim that all sorts of positive policy changes were down to the Lib Dems.