Despite my generally negative view of the LibDems, in terms of tactics, they seem to have done the right thing.

When 75% of the population opposes independence, it makes sense for them to make the issue of a referendum a dealbreaker. Likewise, when the voters have turned against Labour (relatively speaking) in Scotland, The LibDems are probably right to distance themselves from us - and maybe even pretend they had nothing to do with us in the first place.

Ultimately, preventing Salmond from having a majority protects Britain from his worst excesses. It means that there is always a majority that will stop him engineering constitutional crises.

The other true fact is that eventually, Salmond would do something to force the LibDems to leave a coalition, which could leave them without a workable relationship with any party and potentially with an unpredictable PR nightmare.

In their current position, they can sit atop a high horse, supporting what they want to support and opposing what they want to oppose.

In their current position they are effectively governing Scotland, why would they want to swap that for two cabinet posts and a fortnightly buggering from Alec Salmond?

Well, the problem is that Labour lost the election: hence it doesn't have a mandate (or at least, it lost the right to have the first stab at building a mandate) to govern.

Coupled with the Lib Dems also doing badly, it would look arrogant in the extreme for two parties that had shed votes and seats to be seeking to block out the party that, without question, "won" the election.  That really would be electoral suicide for the Lib Dems in particular.

I'm not sure why we're so obsessed with coalitions; there's nothing dishonourable about minority government - in fact it's actually a lot more honourable because there's no backroom deals after the electorate have voted, and each issue gets voted up or down on its merits.  Sure, it's a little less stable; but the stability much depends on the skill of the leadership.

The great irony of this result is that it was the minor parties; supposedly the ones PR is supposed to protect, that got absolutely massacred at this election: if the SNP's gains had come principally from Labour (and its worth reiterating that we only lost four seats overall) then Salmond would almost certainly have been able to form a workable coalition with the Greens, far left and independents, plus Lib Dems, who'd have been in an even weaker position than they are now.

Finally, I also hope that this great discovery of respect for the will of the people from the Lib Dems applies across England where Labour is by far the largest party but without a minority but where they seem to be intent on keeping the Tories in power: Leeds, in particular, springs to mind...

I am sure that the LibDems' refusal to join a coalition with the SNP has something to do with some secret backroom deal to keep Labour in power in Westminster after the next general election.

Everything has changed. For one thing, Wee Eck now has to do more than sit back and snipe as Opposition leader. Now we Scots get to see this numpty exposed for what he is - a media savvy opportunist. McConnell had him all over the place in the last TV debate. McConnell isn't doing himself any favours waiting things out. Within a few days he'll be dead in the water. Besides, his skills are better suited to getting at the SNP from the backbenches, just like he did in Stirling. I'd like to see Alexander replace him.