Aristide Briand's famous dictum that "The man who is not a socialist at twenty has no heart, but if he is still a socialist at forty he has no head."

A witty dctum, yes. But I am more inclined to accept your own comment about how to behave: WHY precisely should he consider himself entitled to denounce expressions of views contrary to his own as "rantings">

Plenty of people declare that those who come to an opposite view to their own are idiots, or heartless. But I think Briand may be the the best known person who says that anyone who didn't follow his exact path is both heartless and idiotic, even if not necessarily at the same time.

There are plenty of people who are tories or labour throughout the whole lives, but who genuinely think about their stance. There are examples of people brought up in a labour household who become tories by conviction, and more than a few who go the other way, with perhaps the best known example of recent times being Tony Benn. It simply does not do to lump people into a handful of categories: we are more complex than that.

Ok, back to the main thread. I doubt that come the next election the LibDem vote will reach much above 10% as a proportion of the vote in most constituencies. Whatever I imagine happening over the next four years seems to end up with either the LDs being indistiguishable from the Tories - in which case what is the point of not voting Tory - or them taking the rap for most of the problems along the way. The implications of that is unclear but more likely a strengthening of Labour against the Conservatives. Even without the whole coalition kerfuffle, whoever administered the 'nasty medicine' that the cuts are likely to be would probably suffer. (Everyone admits their dentist is necessary but few actually like them for it!) So the Conservatives would have found it more difficult to get a second term by the nature of things. Having a sidekick to take most of the hatred certainly helps the Tory chances next time, but the fact the supporters will probably vote for their opponents doesn't. So, all in all, I see the LibDems fading but as to what happens to everyone else - it's too dependent on the next few years to tell.