Clegg is playing is hand...

It’s interesting that despite his party coming third in seats and vote share, despite him actually ending up with fewer seats and losing key front bench colleagues – Nick Clegg has managed to look statesman like today.

Clegg previously said that the party with the biggest vote share would have a moral right to move things forward in a hung Parliament situation.

He has been given immediate kudos on TV and on the web for ‘sticking to his word’ and suggesting it is now for the Tories to try and “govern in the national interest”.

What’s even more interesting is the way the Tories have responded so quickly, with Cameron almost immediately scheduling a statement to show how he’ll meet that challenge.

Despite the policy differences between the two parties, which are stark, it does show how the two leaders operate similarly.

At least it shows how much closer Cameron is to Clegg’s wavelength than Brown.

Labour has put out all sorts of people this morning to appeal to the Lib Dems – Harriet Harman was positively smooching the third party’s political behind on TV just now.

But they don’t seem to have made any headway and anyway, none of those people has been Gordon Brown; putting aside that rather stiff statement earlier.

The PM said: “It is my duty as Prime Minister to take all steps to ensure Britain has a strong, stable and principled government. This is, of course, chiefly a task for politicians and – in time – for Parliament.

“But to facilitate this process and consistent with the conventions set out in the draft Cabinet Manual, I have asked the Cabinet Secretary to arrange for the civil service to provide support on request to parties engaged in discussions on the formation of government.”

Not exactly vibrant stuff, particularly when time is of the essence.

So could a Lib/Con arrangement of some sort actually be quite dynamic? It’s moving so quickly that by the time you’ve read this we may well have an answer.