The David and Nick show

This was season one, episode one of the David and Nick show. As they answered questions in the garden that had magically appeared in Downing Street the night before, the two men looked like a pair of sixth-formers: slightly over-excited, perhaps slightly smug, a little naïve, very funny. They seemed to be relishing an instant rapport, like two strangers who can already tell they might be best friends, filled to the brim by just how audacious they have been. Someone had arranged for the sun to briefly shine. Birds were audibly singing.

One cheeky reporter recalled Cameron's favourite political joke—“Nick Clegg,” the Tory leader had simply said, some years ago. A crease appeared on Clegg's youthful forehead: “Did you say that?” he asked. Cameron sheepishly acknowledged the insult. Clegg pretended to storm off. Cameron called out in mock despair: “Come baaack!”

We know they have thicker skins than they pretend. Just a week ago, the leader of the Liberal Democrats accused Cameron of “breathtaking arrogance,” of associating himself with “homophobes and racists.” Cameron, meanwhile, poured scorn on the idea that a hung parliament and a coalition government could somehow be in any way politically desirable.

There are a few narratives into which the formation of this coalition government might fit. The most interesting is to do with the changing nature of the Liberal Democrats' self-awareness as a third force in British politics. Nick Clegg's election to party leadership could now be seen historically as the moment where an alliance with the leftish elements of the Conservative party became a possibility, or even a probability. It could also be remembered as the first morph in the Lib Dems' transformation into a party very like the German Free Democratic party. There are some in the party who have leaned that way for many years, and at least two of them are now in the cabinet.

Much is now being made of the dangers of internal opposition to this coalition. How will the Iraq-war-protesting, nuclear-power-opposing, animal-rights-fetishising Lib Dem grassroots put up with the immigrant-bashing, climate-change-sceptical, fox-hunting Conservative membership? These caricatures are automatic but fatuous. In fact, the Lib Dem members I've been speaking to are surprisingly open-minded about the future of this deal. There is a sense that the real gain here is the chance for real debate, not only in the newspapers, not only in parliament, but in the heart of government itself: debate around the cabinet table. Gordon Brown tried for a "government of all the talents," but Cameron has come closer to achieving it.

The same cannot quite be said for the 23-24 per cent of the British electorate who vote Lib Dem. For some reason there has been a tendency for voters to view this party as an adjunct of Labour or at least a way to support Labour when you can't quite bring yourself to actually vote for them, as in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq. These supporters— shall we call them Kennedy Liberals?—are likely to melt away very quickly unless something is done to keep them. But then a visible surge of support among the young and idealistic did very little to help Clegg's party last Thursday, so perhaps they won't be missed.

What we see emerging in Westminster now has the potential, of course, to attract an entirely new constituency, a new coalition of support for something that looks increasingly like a classical liberal policy platform. Labour is regrouping. Heartbreaking spending cuts are surely on the way. Amid these difficulties, can ideas and enthusiasm create—or re-create—an electoral niche for this style of politics?

Now Alistair Darling's removals van is slowly reversing along Downing Street, caught in the act by a dozen cameras. Black gates close in front of its headlights. Somewhere in No 10, David and Nick are (I can only assume) settling down with a DVD of The West Wing and a bucket of organic popcorn. The new politics has arrived.

Simon Kaye is a constituency organiser for the Liberal Democrats and researches democratic theory at Queen Mary, University of London