Who'd be a Lib Dem today?

I'm not usually one who feels too sorry for losers but today I cannot help but feel huge sympathy for Lib Dems up and down the land who've suffered a severe drubbing in the elections, and I can only imagine how dreadful Nick Clegg must be feeling right now as we anticipate a likely further blow for his hopes when the AV referendum vote comes in later tonight.

Local MP and Home Secretary, Theresa May, didn't spare a second on sympathy, however, when I spoke to her today at the count. In Windsor and Maidenhead, the Lib Dems lost 14 of their 15 councillors - all of those to the Conservatives. Surely that will affect the health of the ongoing coalition government? She says no. But Paddy Ashdown predicts that this is the end of the "rose garden camaraderie" we saw a year ago between the two leaders.

I wonder.