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It's been compared to a box of cream crackers on wheels and those travelling inside say it's like a giant yellow cocoon.

Nick Clegg's battlebus was hard to miss this afternoon when it arrived - in the middle of the road, naturally - at a Panasonic factory in Cardiff.

The deputy prime minister was given a factory tour where he met some apprentices, answered questions from workers - and made a pancake.

The end product looked good enough to eat although Mr Clegg did look rather uncomfortable in the kitchen - even with James Landale nowhere in sight.

The Lib Dems had chosen Panasonic as an example of a company that has a good record on apprentices and in the European Union.

Speaking to workers, he acknowledged that his "plucky, brave" (his words)decision to go into coalition had hit the Lib Dems in the polls.

When I asked him about his own poll ratings - as flat as a pancake - he told me that he wasn't a pollster, just a politician campaigning for his own values.

Welsh Lib Dem leader Kirsty Williams said people had thought Nick Clegg's Lib Dems didn't have the mettle or the guts to take tough decisions but had preferred to snipe from the sidelines.

She'll be hoping they're not returned to the sidelines after May 7.