Has Nick Clegg already blown it?

Will this Lib Dem conference be looked upon as the moment when Nick Clegg lost the leadership of his party?

This may seem an odd question. He is brilliantly plausible, very nice and has the right ideas for his party, generally. He should defeat Chris Huhne comfortably.

But he may not.

While there is a good deal of debate about Mr Clegg's rather overenthusiastic reply when asked if he might run for the leadership, that's not why I think he's in trouble.

It's because of his illegal immigration amnesty.

Now it's quite possible that we never hear of this policy again and that it changes nothing. The Tories may run scared of it (though I doubt Labour would).

But it is also very possible that this policy becomes a massive problem for the Lib Dems during an early election campaign.

It's one of the very few proposals they could have come up with that has the potential to cut-through. And if it does it would be a disaster for them in quite a number of seats.

What price then, Mr Clegg as leader?