Another explanation is simply that the coalition has elided the Lib Dems with the Tories in many voters' minds.

ECONOMIST: The Liberal Democrats

In his 1996 speech to the Labour Party he artfully elided Britain's achievement in building an empire with its achievement in dismantling the empire peacefully.

ECONOMIST: The British empire

What finally sinks the film, however, is the treatment of the supporting characters, who seem not only thin in conception (Singer, McQuarrie, and the co-writer Nathan Alexander elided the list of real conspirators, yet there are still too many taken on board here) but also dangerously overplayed.

NEWYORKER: Valkyrie