He was never going to win the debate about tuition fees, and Cameron knew this and used it perfectly to completely destroy Clegg's reputation over this one issue.
The Lib-Dems make up a tiny fraction of the coalition, of course they're going to get shouted down and out-voted on most matters, however as others have said they have actually done a lot of good in reining the Tories in, however of course we don't hear about any of that. Also, before the last election they wouldn't have expected to actually get into power, and therefore it's easy for fringe parties to offer the earth within their manifestos, realising they won't actually have to deliver anything. Lib-Dems got their bluff called on that one, had no chance of defeating the Tory motion and then were left with the blame for it all, which I personally find shocking - particularly as it was a Tory policy and the nobody blames the Tories for it!
Clegg is about the only one of the major party leaders that I actually trust, I genuinely think he's a good guy who has the best interests at heart, however he's been royally shafted by the Tories and he does have to take a large share of the blame for hopping into bed with them in the first place.
