“Those pesky Lib Dems” comes up with quite a few usages on a Google search, mostly in connection with stopping the Conservatives from going what they really want to do. We carried a headline at the weekend with such a reference.

For the uninitiated, this goes back to the Scooby Doo cartoons, as related by the Urban Dictionary:

The catch phrase used by every single villain in a Scooby Doo episode.
Some Scooby Doo cast member pulls off the mask of the monster and some random person that appeared in the episode’s face is revealed. He then shouts, “And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids”

I’m not quite sure whether and how “pesky” has somehow replaced “meddling”, or if it was ever “pesky” in the cartoons.

But “pesky Lib Dems” we now seem to be.

Adding strength to this scenario, a recent straw poll by Lord Ashcroft asked which politician reminded people of which cartoon character. Cameron was Dick Dastardly, Ed Miliband was Elmer Fudd and Nick Clegg was seen as Fred Jones from the, yes you guessed it, Scooby Doo gang. He’s the one with the white jumper and red necktie.

Ashcroft says that Fred Jones is “ineffectual” but that’s the kind of the thing the man wearing the mask would say.

So who are the Lib Dem equivalents of the other Scooby Doo gang members? Who is Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley and Norville “Shaggy” Rogers? And who is Scooby Doo? And his cousin Scooby Dum? And his nephew Scrappy Doo?

* Paul Walter is a Liberal Democrat activist and member of the Liberal Democrat Voice team. He blogs at Liberal Burblings.