Nick Clegg is guilty of the biggest political con trick of the decade.

The slippery Lib Dem leader slithered into Parliament on the back of widespread disaffection at the neoliberal, wealth-worshipping, warmongering era of Labour under Tony Blair.

Snake oil salesmen could learn a thing or two from the public spin that depicted the "third party" as some kind of left alternative.

Papers such as the Guardian, which declared its support for the Lib Dems prior to the last election, bear a heavy responsibility for collaborating to create this illusion.

It is a sad fact that voters are unlikely these days to spare the time to thumb the pages of parties' election manifestos.

If they had, those former Labour supporters who turned to Clegg's party would have seen the glaring similarity between the Conservative and Lib Dem agendas.

The tragedy is that Blair and co's betrayal of Labour's pro-working-class roots was as much to blame as any policies being put forward by the current junior coalition partners.

Blair and his allies laid the groundwork for the current trajectory.

That betrayal is matched by Clegg, a spineless opportunist who has collaborated in the worst government for ordinary people since World War II.

Were he a decent man, the shame that this individual should feel at his involvement in the obliteration of so many post-WWII advances would surely result in his resignation and a fresh election, as was demanded in Parliament by the opposition yesterday.

But Clegg is anything but decent.

He and his party have provided the ballast that has seen a relentless offensive against the populace.

His name will forever be marked by the self-serving pursuit of power that has seen he and his parliamentary bedfellows cling onto Tory coat-tails for dear life.

A well-paid post-Westminster career via the corporate-political revolving door awaits Clegg whatever the outcome of the 2015 election.

But the damage that this administration has done in its few years should ensure that his party will, like Blair's Labour before it, be tossed to the winds when the public give their assessment at the ballot box.

However, the great danger for the country is that public alienation, first at "new" Labour and then at the Lib Dems, will see the decline in voter turnouts continue and a tiny elite who as a result are increasingly unaccountable in their execution of power.

The extra-parliamentary battle to ensure that this does not happen must now begin in earnest.

The pollsters cannot yet predict what the outcome of the 2015 election will be.

But while a Labour victory will undoubtedly be preferable to a Conservative one, the struggle to rebuild the economy in the interests of the people cannot end at the ballot box.

The role of the People's Assembly anti-austerity movement and trade unions in forging the vision of society that can replace this wanton destruction and despair will be crucial.

Britain is crying out for positive change that will condemn this age of austerity to the dustbin of history.

Here the Lib Dem con trick can serve as inspiration.

The fact that Clegg and co conned their way into government by posing as a left alternative to Labour lights the way.