Clegg talks privately about his “project” – his plan to transform the Liberal Democrats from a party of protest into a party of power. In opposition, he believes the Lib Dems did what they had to do to stay in a game rigged in favour of the two big parties: filling gaps, seizing opportunities and attacking their opponents wherever they looked vulnerable. But he must have known they were storing up trouble for the future; that many of their supporters would be impossible to satisfy, some of their policies impossible to deliver. The pledge to abolish tuition fees while seeking to eliminate the deficit is one example; the promise to build a zero-carbon energy system while opposing nuclear power another. Last winter, Vince Cable buried the first. Next week, Chris Huhne will ditch the second. The disaffected groups the party courted over the last decade – anti-war, anti-nuclear, anti-fees, anti-politics – will continue to scream betrayal, but Clegg knows they are unlikely to be won back no matter what he does. When he waved goodbye to his party’s past, he was also waving goodbye to many of its past voters.