Philosophical incoherence of the Lib Dems

Every so often I ponder whay the Lib Dems think they exist. There is a case for a genuinely liberal party in the UK. However, if by that we mean a party espousing social and economic liberalism (and I don't know how else to define it) then Tories are the most liberal. They are as liberal socially as the Lib Dems (near enough) and certainly more liberal economically (no party calling itself centre-left as Ming does the Lib Dems) can claim to be economically liberal.

The Lib Dems seem to be a weird mix of social liberalism and economic interventionism which is simply philosophically incoherent. Either you accept a certain relationship between individual and state or you don't; you can't just pick social issues and say 'laissez faire' but as soon as you reach into the individual's pockets say 'now I know best.'

In the end they just seem a permanent protest party for people who don't like Tories or Labour. Go on Lib Dems: split into (proper) liberals and join the Tories, and social democrats and join Labour.