Now, What's the Matter with Britain?

"But Clegg could still snatch an important change in the Liberal Democrats' future status and experience of government–so long as he goes into negotiations with the other two parties in a more grown-up and intelligent way. He must now show that the Liberal Democrats are a serious party of government, able to take responsibility in difficult times. If they turn nervously away for fear of taking office now, the party's fortunes may be wrecked for a generation. The need to push through big changes in state spending, cut public borrowing and get out of the recession provide a perfect rationale for insisting on the UK's first peacetime coalition government since the 1920s."

Patrick Dunleavy in the London Evening Standard sifts through the results of the British election.