POLITICS is a world of compromise, of murky deals done in dark corners in the name of expediency. Democracy even. But we would like to know exactly what trade-offs were done within the Wirral Lib-Dem group to allow six councillors who voted against their party line to carry on more or less unscathed.

Maybe more will emerge next week when Wirral Council votes on a Conservative motion opposing the Strategic Assets Review and the library closures it entails.

Wirral Tories are on a roll right now. At national level, the Conservatives can sniff the heady scent of power more strongly than ever, while locally they have an issue whose support cuts right across party boundaries in the shape of Wirral libraries.

And they are making the most of it. The Labour group, the largest party on the council, has stuck together so far, but the Lib-Dems are all too publicly wavering.

Councillors who have their ears to the ground must know full well that this is an issue over which the electorate feels strongly. The party line is to back the Labour group in the name of responsible governance, even if that means some degree of pain.

But a councillor who does the sums, and can see his or her seat being snatched by another party at the next election is bound to think long and hard – and that is even before matters of conscience and political philosophy come into it.

Meanwhile, even Labour councillors must be wondering where their friends can be found. The decision by culture minister Andy Burnham to order a local inquiry into the Strategic Assets Review is as heavy a hint as can be dropped that Wirral Labour could find itself right out on a limb before too long.

As with just about every political row (or honourable difference of opinion), there will eventually be a solution. Someone, somewhere, will end up eating humble pie. It’s just a question of who, and when.