Nick Clegg is paying the price for being king of compromise | Simon Jenkins

The Lib Dems' EU election trouncing shows they would have been better off leaving the Tories in minority government

The Liberal Democrat party is looking this week like the Glasgow school of art. Ruined by fire, its charred remains are picked over by firefighters while onlookers weep in despair. Could any of the great Victorian masterpiece be salvaged? And who is that, staggering from the smoking ruins? It is Nick Clegg, his face streaked with mud and misery, muttering "totally gutted"...