I was thinking about this.
Could a similar scenario still arise if Labour are able to cling onto power in coalition with the Lib Dems after 2010? Lib Dems completely outshining Labour and taking the credit for all the nice cuddly things and Labour being seen as old and warn out?
I don't
think so. While - as we found out - the anti-Tory Lib Dem vote was too big for them to throw away and remain viable, the 'propping up Gordon Brown' charge - which would stick, even if Mili-D came in in mid-2012 or something - would be damaging in different ways.
Don't underestimate the extent to which the Cleggasm was a reheated 'Paddy Ashdown isn't like the others and will do things differently' - coalition with
anyone would not provide them with a strong starting point to achieve this AHC.
I think it might have worked out better - it's hard to see a worse result than OTL 2015 for the Lib Dems - but not by much.