'The Conservative Way Forward group said a formal power-sharing deal was "not an appropriate way forward" and complained that grassroots opinion was being ignored.'

And that's the problem. I think there's a willingness amongst both the Lib Dem and Tory leaderships to do a deal. I also think a significant proportion of general public see it as the only stable way forward and are prepared to accept it as a reasonable compromise. The stumbling blocks seem to be the lower levels of the parties digging in. The Tory rank and file seems to be made up of fairly hard-line hang-em, flog-em types that won't want to concede an inch towards the Lib Dems and the Lib Dem rank and file seems to lean more towards the SDP than the liberal origins of the party and won't want to concede an inch towards the Tories.

They'd be doing everybody a favour if they accepted the reality of the situation.