Clegg faces the future

The youthful Nick Clegg has become the third Liberal Democrat leader in under two years. BBC News's Laura Kuenssberg considers what sort of impact he could have.

The male clegg drinks nectar, and sucks blood.

Mr Clegg won the Lib Dem leadership race by 511 votes

It's is an old word for a gadfly - an insect which hops from one thing to another, irritating livestock and rarely settling in one place.

Nick Clegg, its namesake, will hope there is more political sweetness than bleeding ahead.

He will also hope that he can adopt and stick to policies that find favour with the public, and lend his party a coherent identity.

He is clever, energetic, and youth can be ticked off on his list of his assets too.

But ease and intellect are no guarantee that he will push his party to greater success.

Mr Clegg won the top job by just a whisker - 511 votes enough to win the leadership.

But that might not be enough to guarantee unity when times get rough.

Despite a minor conviction for arson in his youth, Mr Clegg has none of the problems that his party found with his predecessors Laura Kuenssberg

He has kept his opponent for the top job close, moving Chris Huhne from the environment brief to his own former role looking after home affairs.

But Mr Clegg's narrow victory could sow doubt in party minds.

And although he has been an elected representative for nearly a decade, a member of the European Parliament in 1999, he is not steeped in the art of working Westminster, only elected to the commons in 2005.

Most of the Liberal Democrats' woes have stemmed from the loss of two leaders in two years - neither departure in happy circumstances.

Despite a minor conviction for arson in his youth, Mr Clegg has none of the problems that his party found with his predecessors.

But even if Mr Clegg proves intensely popular with Lib Dems, will he be welcomed in the wider world?

Charismatic figures

Not withstanding the party's slump in recent months, the last 15 years has seen them move from a couple of dozen MPs, to taking six million votes and more than 60 seats in the Commons.

Certainly they became a more slick operation during that period - Paddy Ashdown and then Charles Kennedy both charismatic figures.

But they did not make all of their own luck.

That period coincided with the longest political coma the Conservatives had ever fallen into - with their worst share of the vote in three consecutive general elections since 1832.

That was important because it is the Tories from whom the Liberals have taken most seats in their successful decade.

So as the Conservatives grow ever more confident under David Cameron, so the Lib Dems' existing share of the electorate is squeezed.

Promising politician?

And in 2005, when the Lib Dems scored their biggest ever win, they culled votes from Labour - out of favour, due in large part, to an unpopular war in Iraq.

Opposing the conflict was a definitive cry for the Lib Dems, hauling in large numbers of votes.

It is hard so far, to see what could act as such a magnet for the party next time round.

So what have we learnt of Mr Clegg as leader so far?

A buzzing gadfly or promising politician of substance?

He does not believe in God, and has asked veteran rocker Brian Eno to help get him in touch with younger voters.

It will be some time before we learn if he can bite his political opponents where it hurts.