Five days since the leaders television debate and the repercussions are still setting off the alarms in Labour and Tory headquarters, writes John Hipwood.

Tens of thousands of British citizens are stranded abroad, UK airlines are in danger of going bust, no melons or exotic flowers in the shops, and still the politicians are talking about Nick Clegg.

Several days after the transport disruption began and while Brits were spending hundreds, even thousands of pounds on trying to find their way home to get back to their businesses, and enable their children to go back to school, Gordon Brown decided to call a meeting of the cabinet emergency committee, Cobra.

“We’ll send a few Royal Navy ships to see if we can evacuate people” was the result. Broadcaster Dan Snow had already thought of something similar, but guess what, his efforts were stymied by our EU partners in France.

If you’re disgusted by the response to the air shutdown, then what about the reaction of the Tories and Labour to Mr Clegg?

Shall we attack him, shall we ignore him, shall we agree with him? The thinkers, movers and shakers inside the Labour and Conservative parties haven’t got a clue.

In true attack dog tradition, Norman (Lord) Tebbit says “go for him, prick his bubble” while former cabinet colleague Kenneth (Lord) Baker argues that the Tories should concentrate on one or two Lib Dem policies, including their approach to Europe.

Using one of Tony Blair’s dreadful phrases, there is a real danger for the Conservatives now that the Lib Dem leader will be seen as “the changemaker”.

Peter (Lord) Mandelson might well have been right when he described the increase in support for the Lib Dems as a flirtation with Nick Clegg. But can he be sure? Watch the opinion polls after the next TV debates.

As this column has suggested before, Labour would be quite happy for the Lib Dems to do well in some areas, but this holds difficulties for Mr Clegg.

If he wants to be the changemaker, he can’t be seen to be prepared to cosy up to Mr Brown in a coalition government.

If the polls still show next weekend the Lib Dems up there with the other two, you will be able to hear Corporal Jones from both of the major parties’ HQs shouting: “Don’t panic. Don’t panic.”