There was a lot of sneering at Westminster when the Liberal Democrats starting talking about their "shadow cabinet".
For years the Lib Dems never bothered with one, because they barely had enough MPs to make up the numbers. It was only after the 1997 election, when the party won 46 seats, that forming one became a realistic option.
Over the years the party started using the phrase "shadow cabinet" - reserved for the official opposition - more and more, and the Lib Dems have now got to the stage where, in some parts of the media, the phrase has started appearing without inverted commas.
But it is worth making the point that it bears no comparison with the real thing. There are 63 Lib Dem MPs, and - as I write - 27 are members of the shadow cabinet. Another 24 have formal frontbench positions.
That means four out of 10 Lib Dem MPs are "shadow cabinet" ministers.
To put that in context, there are 352 Labour MPs, of whom 22 are members of the cabinet. That's roughly one in 20.
David Cameron also has 27 MPs in his shadow cabinet. But there 193 Tory MPs, meaning that only three in 20 sit at the top table.
Nick Clegg's decision to order his MPs to abstain in the referendum vote has split the party in the Commons. I gather that the Lib Dems peers have not decided what they are going to do when the Lords are asked to vote on a referendum.
Shirley Williams, their leader, is an ardent pro-European and she would probably find it very difficult to sit on her hands if there was any chance of the Tories defeating Labour on a referendum amendment in the Lords.
But if she were to lead her peers into the lobby with the government, Clegg would be forced to explain why he could not do the same in the Commons.
