British political marriage in trouble

(Not that Cable is a stranger to ruthlessness. Last December he was caught bragging to an apparent constituent, who was actually a journalist wearing a wire, that he would 'bring the government down' if the Tories 'push me too far'. 'I have a nuclear option… They know I have nuclear weapons', was the business secretary's improbable boast.)

Lord Ashdown, the Lib Dems' prolific former leader, accused PM Cameron of bad faith over his campaigning for a No vote. But given the margin of defeat and the widespread apathy, David Cameron can hardly be accused, as John Howard famously was, of being a 'prime minister who broke a nation's heart'. The referendum question was not tricky and there was no equivalent of Howard's preamble thrown in to cloud the issue.

Clegg is now talking about being a 'moderating influence' in the Conservative-led government and preventing a return to 'Thatcherism' – a striking departure from his earlier stance that the Lib Dems must 'own' government initiatives and not behave like an internal opposition.

The irony is that success in the referendum and the council elections has brought the Conservatives a real political problem: maintaining the coalition with a weakened Lib Dem leadership presiding over an increasingly mutinous party. For Britain's government, a rockier future beckons. And after a referendum which failed to catch the British public's attention, voting reform is unquestionably back in the long grass.

Indeed, with the Scottish National Party winning the concurrent election for Scotland's parliament outright, a very different constitutional development may be in prospect. The SNP wants Scottish independence from the UK. Its leader, Alex Salmond, has pledged a referendum on the question within five years.

Polls consistently show a majority of Scots oppose independence. Still, incumbency can be a powerful tool when it comes to winning referenda. Just ask David Cameron. Or John Howard.

Bio: Stephen Minas is a journalist and a research associate with the Foreign Policy Centre, London. Twitter @StephenMinas