Could the phone still ring for the Lib Dems?

Labour has been negotiating on screen with the Lib Dems (Lord Mandelson on the BBC the moment the polls closed, Alan Johnson even more blatantly and seeming to put himself in the frame as a passionate loather of the current voting system) so it would be surprising if there weren’t private approaches being made to them behind the scenes too.
 
David Cameron carefully kept his options open in his count speech…the “national interest” would be upmost in his mind as he decides how to respond to the results. David Cameron may yet have to phone the Lib Dems and he knows it.
 
What is the trend tonight? It looks as though the Cameron appeal works in the south but doesn’t so easily translate the further up the motorways north you go.

And it looks like the Lib Dems have had a disappointing night but may still find the phone ringing with interesting offers.
 
It’s almost as if the electorate, little in love with their politicians, have tried to work out what they, the political establishment, would least like. And they’ve delivered it.

Labour figures reported throughout the campaign that the voters were fed up or angry with them on a sliding scale. Tories reported there was “little love” for them.

The Lib Dems seemed to benefit from that briefly but there must be questions about whether their supporters drifted away or whether the post-debate surge was an X Factor verdict not a voting intention answer.