Liddle: 'It was the Guardian wot lost it for Clegg'

Rod Liddle in the Sunday Times today claims :'It’s The Guardian wot lost it, Nick'.
Liddle writes: "So there they were, the Liberal Democrats, with Nick Clegg soaring ahead in the polls, ready to consign Labour to history, describing the contest as a “two-horse race” between themselves and the Tories. All going better than beyond their wildest dreams. And what happened? One morning, they woke up to find they had the support of The Guardian.
"From then on it was all downhill, until almost nobody in the country was prepared to vote for them. They actually lost seats.
"You may remember that the newspaper had this effect before, when it intervened in the 2004 American election by getting famous half-witted British liberals such as Lady Antonia Fraser to write letters to American voters in a crucial state telling them how thick and ghastly they were to vote for George W Bush.
"As a consequence, Ohio swung solidly behind Bush. Democrat politicians eviscerated The Guardian for its arrogance. How Clegg must wish that the paper had backed Gordon Brown, or Nick Griffin. Anyone but him."

• Earlier this year Liddle was tipped to be the new editor of the Independent after the Lebedev takeover. But when the story was broken by MediaGuardian there was a backlash against him based on some of his most controversial columns and Liddle never got the job.