I Think That The Days When Newspaper Barons Could Basically Click Their Fingers And Governments Would Snap To Attention Have Gone.

-Nick Clegg

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I Think That The

Nick Clegg

...

I Think That The Days When Newspaper Barons Could Basically Click Their Fingers And Governments Would Snap To Attention Have Gone.

Topic

Thinking

Government

Attention

I Am Quite Strict As A Dad But I Don't Want To Be Censorious.

Dad

Want

Strict

[all Governments] Get Into A Rut Where Every Potentially Good Story Turns Into A Bad One.

Government

Stories

Ruts

Politics Is A Highly Tribal Business.

If The Euro Zone Doesn't Come Up With A Comprehensive Vision Of Its Own Future, You'll Have A Whole Range Of Nationalist, Xenophobic And Extreme Movements Increasing Across The European Union. And, Frankly, Questions About The British Debate On Eu Membership Will Just Be A Small Sideshow Compared To The Rise Of Political Populism.

Political

Vision

Movement

Nothing Will Do More Damage To The Pro-european Movement Than Giving Room To The Suspicion That We Have Something To Hide, That We Do Not Have The “cojones” To Carry Our Argument To The People.

People

Giving

Cojones

I've Just Been Away For A Week, And I Dropped My Blackberry In The Sea While I Was Messing Around With The Kids, So No One Can Reach Me. Blissful. I Heartily Recommend It.

Kids

Sea

Week

Every Time [chris Bryant] Asks A Question I Become More And More Baffled Why Anyone Would Want To Hack His Phone And Listen To His Messages

Phones

Want

Messages

[ed Miliband]'s Elevated Personal Abuse Into A Sort Of Strategy

Abuse

Strategy

Although I Am A Young Leader, I Actually Came To It Strangely Quite Late. I Have A Different Perspective, Partly Because Of My Family, Partly Because Of What I Did For Ten Years: Negotiating Trade Deals, Working Out In Central Asia Doing Assistance Projects.

Years

Work Out

Perspective

I Totally Rule Out Any Arrangements With The Snp — In The Same Way I Rule Out Any Arrangements With Ukip - Because There Is No Meeting Point For Me With One Party That Basically Wants To Pull Our Country To Bits And Another Party That Wants Us To Pull Out Of The Eu. I Would Never Recommend To The Liberal Democrats That We Help Establish A Government Which Is Basically On A Life Support System, Where Alex Salmond Could Pull The Plug Any Time He Wants.

Life

Country

Party

The Conservative Party Is Not Honouring The Commitment To Lords Reform And, As A Result, Part Of Our Contract Has Now Been Broken. Clearly I Cannot Permit A Situation Where Conservative Rebels Can Pick And Choose The Parts Of The Contract They Like, While Liberal Democrat Mps Are Bound To The Entire Agreement.

Party

Commitment

Agreement

I Don't Watch A Huge Amount Of Telly. I Read A Lot. I'm Reading At The Moment 'freedom,' By Jonathan Franzen, A Great Big Brick Of A Book, And I'm Loving It.

Book

Reading

Bricks

I Care More About Getting This Right [nhs Reform] Than I Do About Getting It Done.

Nhs

Reform

Done

Grown-up Politicians Talk To Each Other Across Party Lines. Over The Last Few Weeks I Have Had Lengthy Conversations With Ed Miliband, David Miliband, With Tony Blair, With Peter Mandelson... Talking About Europe, Talking About Political Reform.

Party

Talking

Europe

Our Sheffield And London Homes Are Worth Well Over A Million But The Bank Owns Most Of Them - We Are Mortgaged Up To The Gills.

Home

London

Sheffield

If You Scratch Below The Surface And Ask What Really Makes Me Tick, It's The Liberalism Of Trying To Promote Freedom And Opportunity. Promoting Social Mobility Is One Of The Keys To That.

Opportunity

Keys

Trying

Growth That Lasts Does Not Threaten Our Children's Future. It Recognises That Our Planet Is A Gift That Must Be Cherished. That Tomorrow Is Our Responsibility As Much As Today.

Children

Responsibility

Growth

Any Government, Of Whatever Composition, Needs To Mobilise Opinion Way Beyond Its Own Ranks In Order To Do The Difficult Things That It Does.

Government

Order

Needs

What We Should Be Doing In The Eu As A Whole Is More Economic Integration In The Single Market, Rather Than Less.

Economic Integration

Should

Whole

Joining The Liberal Party Was A No-brainer For Me... And When You Are A Young Man, You Don't Get A Calculator Out Saying, 'am I Going To Get To Power?' You Get Propelled Forward By Idealism.

Party

Men

Joining

The Caricature Of What George Osborne Is Doing On The Fiscal Side Is Absurd. If You Read Some Of The Commentary, Particularly From The Left, You Would Think He Was Turning The Clock Back To The 1930s.

Thinking

Sides

Clock

I Think It Is A Simple Statement Of Principle That In A Democracy You Should Make Your Mps Work Harder For Your Vote And Try And Get At Least Majority Support In Their Local Area, And That In A Nutshell Is What Av Does.

Hard Work

Simple

Thinking

On The Bskyb Bid, Rupert Murdoch Is Now In Town In London Seeking To Sort Things Out. I Would Simply Say To Him, Look How People Feel About This. Look How The Country Has Reacted With Revulsion To The Revelations. So Do The Decent And Sensible Thing And Reconsider, Think Again, About Your Bid For Bskyb.

Country

Thinking

People

I Don't Want To Clip On The Armour Every Morning. I've Seen Some Politicians Do This And They Get A Bit Mangled And Bitter. I Just Refuse To Do That. I Refuse To Be Angry Or Bitter Or Complain, And I Remain Open. I May Sometimes Be A Bit Too Open But I'm Not Going To Change That One Bit.

Morning

Complaining

May

One Of The Big Changes In Politics Has Been Because Families, Individuals, Have Felt Worried, Insecure... Worried About The Economy, Worried About Their Jobs, Worried About Their Kids' Futures... Actually The Disconnect Between The Public And Media Discourse And People's Everyday Concerns Has Become Bigger Not Smaller.

Jobs

Kids

Insecure

Actually, The Curious Thing Is That The More You Become A Subject Of Admiration Or Loathing, The More You're Examined Under A Microscope, The Distance Seems To Open Up Between Who You Really Are And The Portrayals That People Impose On You.

Distance

People

Loathing

I Will Not Accept A New Wave Of Fiscal Retrenchment, Of Belt-tightening, Without Asking People At The Top To Make Their Contribution, To Make An Additional Contribution. I Don't Think You Can Ask People On Middle And Low Incomes, Who, After All, Are The Vast Majority Of The British Population, To Bear The Brunt Of This Adjustment.

Thinking

People

Majority

I Don't Lead A Particularly Bohemian Existence. The Main Criterion For Me Is Not To Be Judgemental Of Other People So Long As What They Do Is Not Harmful Or Offensive To Others.

Long

People

Judgemental

Most Of What Needs To Be Changed In The Euro Zone Can Be Done Without Treaty Changes. The Demand For Treaty Change Is As Political As It Is Legal And I Don't Think It's Going To Happen Soon.

Thinking

Political

Needs

I Say This As A Young Dad Seeing Children Going Into Primary School: I Don't Think We Should Underestimate The Formative Effect On A Child Of Those First Years In Primary School.

Dad

Children

School

I Am A Passionate Believer In Freedom Of Speech. I Would Not Support Anything Which Would Impinge On Aggressive Robust Freedom Of The British Press, But When Things Go Wrong And There Has Been Outright Illegality, There Should Be Proper Accountability.

Support

Accountability

Freedom Of Speech

The Liberal Democrats Will Add A Heart To A Conservative Government And A Brain To A Labour One.

Heart

Government

Brain

I'm Very Lucky. I Am One Of Those People Who Is Able To Go Home, Shut The Front Door And Completely Focus On The Kids.

Kids

Home

Doors

The Uk Is Not Going To Leave The European Union. Of Course Not. We Are Inextricably Wound Up With Europe. In Terms Of Culture, History And Geography, We Are A European Nation.

Europe

Culture

Unions

You've Got Some Very Powerful Countries: Poland, The United Kingdom, Sweden And Others Who Have A Genuine Desire To See The Euro Zone Straighten Itself Out. It's Good For All Of Us, Whether You're In The Euro Zone Or Not, To Make Sure That It Doesn't Lead To A Fracturing.

Country

Powerful

Desire

We Need To Reach Out To Small 'l' Liberal Voters Who Have A Modern Outlook On Life, Who Want A Party That Is Hard-headed On The Economy - More Credible On The Economy Than Labour - But More Socially Progressive And Fairer Than The Conservatives.

Party

Outlook On Life

Needs

You See People Literally In A Different Galaxy Who Are Paying Extraordinarily Low Rates Of Tax.

People

Different

Aliens

The Liberal Democrat Party And The Conservative Party Come At Things Very Differently When It Comes To Europe. When It Comes To Political Reform, We Have A Much Greater Tradition In The Liberal Democrats Of Social Justice And Fairness Than The Conservatives Do.

Party

Europe

Justice

One Of The Best Ways To Make Growth Personal Is To Give Employees A Share In Their Firm, A Real Incentive To Go The Extra Mile, More Of A 'john Lewis Economy' If You Like...we Know That Firms Where Employees Are Engaged And Own A Stake Do At Least As Well As Other Companies In The Good Times And Have Performed Even Better In Recent Bad Times. Expanding And Recruiting At A Much Faster Rate And Achieving Better Productivity...so, Why Do They Make Up Just 2% Of Our Business Landscape?

Real

Giving

Growth

I Genuinely Believe That We Will Look Back On Today As A Landmark For Equality In Britain ... No Matter Who You Are And Who You Love, We Are All Equal. Marriage Is About Love And Commitment, And It Should No Longer Be Denied To People Just Because They Are Gay.

Believe

Commitment

Gay

Liberalism Is A Really Old British Tradition And It Has A Completely Different Attitude Towards The Individual And The Relationship Between The Individual And The State Than The Collectivist Response Of Labour, And Particularly Old Labour, Does.

Attitude

Doe

Different

Most People In The Country Would Think The Diamond Jubilee Is A Wonderful Occasion For Us To Celebrate Together As A Community And As A Nation. But I Suspect That Most People In The Country Would Think, Given That There Is Very Little Money Around, That This Probably Would Not Be The Top Of Their List Of Priorities For The Use Of Scarce Public Resources.

Country

Thinking

Diamond Jubilee

I Firmly Believe That The Principles Behind Contraction & Convergence Provide The Best Long-term Framework For A Fair And Equitable Climate Change Mitigation Policy

Believe

Long

Climate

I Totally Accept That It's A Legitimate Criticism That When You Are Involved In The Day-to-day Scrum Of Government That What Can Get Lost Is The Narrative, The Hymn Sheet The Song That Inspires And Lifts People's Sights.

Song

Government

Sight

You Have A Political And Media Elite Who Have An Idiom By Which They Describe Politics. It's Highly, Highly Polarised. It's Right, Left, Red, Blue, Up, Down, Victorious, Crushed.

Blue

Media

Political

For Far Too Long The World's Poorest People Have Seen No Benefit From The Vast Natural Resources In Their Own Backyards. It Is Time To End The Injustice Where Ordinary People Are Silent Witnesses, Left To Suffer Without Basic Services, As The Profits From Their Countries' Assets Are Hidden And Plundered By Corrupt Regimes.

Country

Long

People

One Thing I've Very Quickly Learned Is That If You Wake Up Every Morning Worrying About What's In The Press, You Would Go Completely And Utterly Potty.

Morning

Worry

Wake Up

What I Hope Is In Five Years' Time, I Can Go To The British People In The Election And Say: Lots Of You Doubted That Coalition Politics Worked, But It Has Worked.

Years

People

Election

I Have Got Instincts That, I Think, Are Very Much In Tune With People's Very Keen Sense To See Something Different. I Did Not Dream Of Being In Politics Since I Was Knee-high To A Grasshopper. I Was Not Involved In Student Politics, Or Not In That Partisan Way.

Dream

Thinking

People

After The Economic 9/11, We Will Face A New World Order.

Order

World

Faces

I Don't Even Pretend We Can Occupy The Lib Dem Holier-than-thou, Hands-entirely-clean-and-entirely-empty-type Stance. No, We Are Getting Our Hands Dirty, And Inevitably And Totally Understandably We Are Being Accused Of Being Just Like Any Other Politicians.

Dirty

Naughty

Hands

I Work In Lockstep, Hand In Glove, With The Prime Minister On These Issues, And As We Are Supportive To The Eurozone So They Can Sort Their Problems Out, In Return They Introduce Safeguards To Ensure Precisely What I Said: That The Single Market Is Not Fragmented And That Important Industries Like The Financial Services Industry Are Treated Fairly. Not Exceptional Treatment, But Are Just Simply Treated Fairly, On A Level Playing Field Within Europe.

Hands

Europe

Issues

I Didn't Become Leader To Transform The Liberal Democrats Into An Enlarged Form Of The Electoral Reform Society. It's Not The Be All And End All For Us. There Are Other Very, Very Key Ambitions In Politics, Not Least Social Mobility And Life Chances, That I Care About As Passionately If Not More.

Ambition

Keys

Leader

My Dad's Side Of The Family Had Lots Of Artists And Musicians. There's An Emotional, Quite Sentimental Quality To Slavic Culture. It's Very Open, It Loves Art, It Loves Music, It Loves Literature. It's Very Warm, It's Very Up, It's Very Down. I Would Celebrate That.

Art

Dad

Emotional

We Need To Teach Our Kids, Because There Is Such A Celebrity Culture At The Moment, That However Rich You Are, However Famous You Are, However Glamorous You Are, Everyone Has To Live By The Same Rules.

Kids

Needs

Culture

We Are Keen To Stress That A Strong Euro Zone Is Good For A Strong United Kingdom. It's Not For Us To Write The Changes That The Euro Zone Needs To Embark On.

Strong

Stress

Writing

The Labour Party Has Become Consumed By Collective Bile Towards... The Liberal Democrats. That Portrays A Rather Nasty Arrogance.

Party

Arrogance

Nasty

Tony Blair And Gordon Brown Committed To John Major's Spending Envelopes In 1997. No-one Said That Tony Blair And John Major Were Identical. This Happens Quite Often That Parties Actually, Despite All The Sound And Fury, Agree On The Overall Need To Make Sure That We Live Within Our Means As A Country.

Country

Party

Mean

Voters Tell Politicians What They Want Through The Ballot Box. Constantly Second-guessing Them By Speculating Whether The Parties Should Gang Up On Each Other Misses The Point.

Party

Missing

Guessing

Do I Get Up Every Morning And Ask: Am I Doing The Things That I Believe In And Am I Doing Them For The Best Possible Motives? Yes. Unambiguously Yes.

Morning

Believe

Start The Day

If There's One Thing I'm Not Going To Apologise For As The Leader Of The Liberal Democrats In Government After 60 Or 70 Years Of Being Out Of Government, It's That You Just Cannot Avoid But Deal With The World The Way It Is.

Government

Years

Leader

One Thing I Have Frankly Decided Is That When It Comes To Political Reform We Have Two Conservative Parties In British Politics. Both The Labour And Conservative Parties Have Constantly And Repeatedly Failed To Honour Promises They Have Made About Reforming, Cleaning, Modernising Our Clapped-out System.

Party

Two

Political

I Think That The Days When Newspaper Barons Could Basically Click Their Fingers And Governments Would Snap To Attention Have Gone.

Thinking

Government

Attention

My Head Spins. One Moment I'm Told I'm Too Edgy, Then People Say I'm Too Angry, Then That I Show Too Much Passion... Make Your Minds Up.

Passion

People

Mind

When I Became Leader, I Made Very Clear I Was Not Going To Choose The Easy Life. I Have Always Taken Risks. I Don't Like Comfort-zone Politics.

Taken

Leader

Risk

I Think That The

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