Did angry Lib Dems cause Brexit?

A recent political anecdote passed most people by; it is the story told by Donald Tusk that David Cameron thought that being in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats would prevent his proposed referendum from going ahead. He was therefore able to say he would call a referendum to try to hold his Conservative party together, but was quite confident that the Lib Dems would block him when he tried to carry it out. That way he would avoid having to have the referendum, but not take the blame for it. Donald Tusk relates the story:

“I asked David Cameron, ‘Why did you decide on this referendum, this — it’s so dangerous, so even stupid, you know,’ and, he told me — and I was really amazed and even shocked — that the only reason was his own party, [he told me] he felt really safe, because he thought at the same time that there’s no risk of a referendum, because, his coalition partner, the Liberals, would block this idea of a referendum. But then, surprisingly, he won and there was no coalition partner. So paradoxically David Cameron became the real victim of his own victory.”

At the next election, traditional Lib Dem voters punished the party for what they saw as the betrayal committed when they allowed the coalition government to raise tuition fees for university students, a policy they had promised to oppose. Consequently, the Liberal Democrats were not in coalition…