Are the Libdems just a Tory Faction now?

Well no its worse than that if Nick Glegg was a Government Minister and  the leader of a faction  within the Tory party (Like the Bruge group) and he had been humiliated by his leader. To the extent that  the Deputy prime minister was

"bitterly disappointed" by the outcome of the EU summit, and says he is still committed to the coalition government with the Conservatives. adding that David Cameron's decision to veto a new EU treaty would leave the UK "isolated and marginalised".

 He could, no probably nd would have resigned  from his cabinet position and  returned to the Backbenches and be probably be followed  if they had any ounce of morality by his fellow Libdem ministers.

U K's new position on the World Map

Of course this would have led to the fall of the coalition . So Clegg and his colleagues are showing that far from being a moderating influence on Camerons Conservative, they are in such a weak position that they can't even stand up for their principals and are prepared to accept th UK Isolationist Role and its new position as a Mid Atlantic Island with no influence in Europe treated like a minor power by the US and the rest of the World regarding us as the home of greedy bankers .

Clegg seems to be a impossible position he clearly leads a party that if they were in opposition would have been the most vocal opponent of Cameron's pathetic kowtowing to the Tory Eurosceptic right who may be a faction that  but clearly has more and influence that he ad his rag tag army has.

However if he was to call time on the coalition and force a General Election it it is unlikely his party would return anything but a rump.

Cameron has clearly humiliated his deputy but unlike previous Ministers, who had previously experienced  this such as  such as Geoffrey Howe after in the aftermath of the Prime Minister's Margaret Thatcher position at the Rome European Council meeting way back in November 1990, at which she had declared for the first time that Britain would never enter a single currency , left the Cabinet and  this led to his resignation speech. where he offered a striking cricket metaphor for British negotiations on EMU in Europe:

"It is rather like sending your opening batsmen to the crease, only for them to find, as the first balls are being bowled, that their bats have been broken before the game by the team captain". 

In Clegg's case it seems that he wasn't even allowed on the team bus.