Nick Clegg has announced tonight that protecting the education budget is going to be a deal breaker in any coalition negotiations and that we would not enter any coalition without ensuring that funding would be raised by £6.3 billion over the next Parliament. He told the BBC he would:

not accept under any circumstances the cuts to nurseries, to schools and to colleges that both Conservatives and now Labour have announced”.

And if we don’t get that we wouldn’t enter into a coalition in the first place,” he continued.

We are the only party to protect from cradle to college, from nursery to 19-year-olds.

In pounds and pence – per year – we will be spending £2.5bn more than Labour, £5bn more than the Tories. That is a significant difference.

Party President Sal Brinton emailed party members tonight to elaborate on Nick’s announcement:

This is an incredibly uncertain election – perhaps the most uncertain I have ever known. The only thing I can honestly tell you I’m sure of is this; nobody is going to win. Labour and the Tories won’t admit it, but every pollster agrees that no party will have a majority. We shouldn’t pre-empt the election result but with our target seat teams delivering some absolutely incredible campaigns, as President part of my job is to make sure the party is ready for what may come post-election.

Our priority in any coalition negotiations after the election will be to deliver the priorities that you, our members, have decided through our manifesto process. Just like in 2010, where the four priorities on the front page of our manifesto were the priorities for the negotiations , our negotiation team will be led by the manifesto front page that was decided by the Federal Policy Committee, and the pre-manifesto that was agreed by conference.

You’ll see this evening that Nick has identified the first “red line” for us to consider entering a second coalition government, which is our manifesto pledge to project the education budget from “cradle to college”. As Liberals we know that education more than anything else is what empowers individuals, so it’s right that we make this a prerequisite of us forming a government.

Of course, just as the priorities Nick is arguing for in public are the ones decided by the party, so the process of entering a coalition is governed by the party as well.  If you’d like to know more about the party’s process if we are in a position to begin coalition negotiations after the election, click here.

If after May the 7th we are in a position to enter negotiations then you’ll be hearing a lot more from me, including how individual members can feed into the process.

Until then I know you’ll be focused on exactly the same thing I am – electing as many Lib Dem MPs and Councillors as possible so we can deliver as much of our manifesto as possible. If you’re not yet signed up to help a particular target seat this week why not make some phone calls from home? Just fill in this form and one of the team will be in touch.

A couple of quick thoughts from me:

It’s hardly a surprise. and the party is nothing if not consistent. Remember the penny on income tax to pay for education in 1992. Education is something that goes to the very heart of liberalism, as an end in itself, not just as a means to work. One of the great things the Lib Dems have done in this Parliament is to channel extra money to disadvantaged kids in school to help them one day break out of poverty.

However, thought will need to be given on other red lines. This only applies to England. The party will have to offer something a bit special to Scotland, a bit more than “we won’t work for the SNP.” Full implementation of the Smith Commission measures is something that all 3 parties have promised to do so it can’t be that. Likewise, Wales needs something, too – perhaps that alteration of the Barnett Formula in their favour. But then where does that leave our USP on the NHS, being the only party to present a fully-funded plan on the £8 billion. That again is England only.

The Conservative Party has done enormous damage to the union in recent weeks with its shameless and cynical posturing about the SNP. We need a deal-breaker that gets the relationship between the two countries back on track.

Thirdly, we’d better be careful about pre-announcing too many red lines. Because we’ll have to get them in full. Or else there will be trouble. One pledge unfulfilled could be forgiven. Two, well, Lady Bracknell would be very disapproving.

And one final thought. It would be lovely if we members could get these emails before the press, just once or twice. I first heard about this while watching tv in the garage after limping there with a very flat tyre. The email from Sal came in an hour or too later.The other way around would be good.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron’s Musings