Following the disastrous by-election result in Corby where the Lib Dems its deposit, Nick Clegg has vowed to reduce the current £500 deposit to 10p in an effort to prevent the party becoming insolvent.
With 650 constituencies to be fought at the next election, Clegg's move will reduce Lib Dem losses to £65 rather than £325,000, meaning that the party's current bank balance of £120.76 plus a couple of fluff-covered Werther's Originals will be sufficient to place a candidate in all constituencies.
'We need at least 5% of the vote to have our deposit returned, and if we achieve this in 10% of our safe-seat constituencies we will save a further 50p, a figure not dissimilar to the real savings the coalition government has made from closing down most public services after the cost of paying additional benefits to sacked workers has been taken into account.'
