Conference Special Daily Politics

Afternoon, folks. Welcome to our final Daily Politics conference

special on the Liberal Democrats in Brighton, where all eyes will be on

Nick Clegg. The Lib Dem leader is conference speech just after 3.00pm

to the party faithful, for whom he will have an uncompromising

message: the party needs to grit its teeth and bear it until voters

realise they are doing the right thing. Whether they ever do, of

course, is the dark cloud hanging over this conference. Mr Clegg and

his wife Miriam walked into the conference hall a few minutes ago

on their way from the Grand Hotel, passed the exhibitions where the

parties make all their money at conferences. This is Clegg -- Mrs

Clegg is wearing a dreg by Henrietta Ludgate, a Scottish

designer. The shoes are from Zara, that's only fitting. It is a

Spanish company and she is Spanish. For some reason they haven't

briefed us on where Mr Clegg got his suit. Let's go to the inside of

the hall. There is the Lib Dem faithful gathering for this annual

speech. They've been queuing up outside. Had a quick lufrpblgt some

of them coffee and sandwiches on the way in. It won't -- lunch. Some

of them had coffee and sandwiches on the way in. There's a sense that

the economic policy has yet to work its magic, if it had any magic. As

everybody takes their seats in the hall we'll be talking to two former

leaders, VIPs no less, Paddy Ashdown on the right and Ming

Campbell on the left. And Adam will be talking to Lib Dem plebs - did I

say that? At least I didn't swear. I mean the rank and file of the

party. And I will be prowling the floors of the conference to get

predictions and reaction from conference delegates.

All that in the next couple of hours. And with us for the duration,

two of our favourite pollsters - Ben Page from Ipsos MORI and Peter

Kellner from YouGov. So, if you have any thoughts or comments on

Nick Clegg's speech, you can send them to us at

[email protected]. Or tweet your comments using the hashtag

#bbcdp. There was talk of a challenge to Mr

Clegg's leadership on the eve of this conference, but that has

clearly failed to materialise. But there is a sense in which Mr Clegg

is living on borrowed time. His personal and poll ratings are dire

and if they stay that way for another year, his leadership could

well be on the line, especially since there is now a clear

frontrunner to replace him - 69- year-old Vince Cable. The Lib Dems

are in a double bind. Unless the coalition's economic policy starts

to work, the Lib Dems will be in for a hammering. And even if it

does, the Lib Dems might not get the credit. That's between a rock

and a hard place isn't it? Yes, and last week our YouGov poll, where we

measure party leaders' ratings every week, Nick Clegg dipped below

Gordon at his worst. He is the main party, the least popular leader

since Michael Foot. Is there examples from modern times of

someone having poll ratings this bad but coming back? I can't think

of any. One of the problems that third parties like the Lib Dems

seem to get hammered when they go into coalition with a bigger party.

You can see this in European politics all the time. Never say

never but I can't think of one where somebody like Clegg has come

back from the abyss. There's been a sense, Peter Kellner, this week

that Mr Clegg and the party leadership haven't really been

talking to us and the wider public. They've got so many problems of

their own that they are talking to themselves. I think that's right.

Look, I'm rather than -- I rather admire Nick Clegg. He did,

unusually for a politician, put country before country. When I was

in Brighton on Monday, the people I spoke to were either in depression

or denial. That bad? I found very literally optimism. Express

optimism, they to. Nick Clegg says he will go on into the next

election. He has to, or become a lame duck. But I don't think

anybody, the other thing that Nick Clegg will step down before the

next election, or if he leads them, they will get seriously slaughtered.

Should we take seriously or with a large bag of salt the polls which

say if Vince Cable was leader the Lib Dems would be 5% up? I remember

when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister we would ask if Michael

Heseltine was leader or somebody else, the Tories would do much

better, in the late 1980s do. We take them serious stphri They tell

you something that you can only tell when it happens. So often in

recent British political history the person that ends up replacing

the leader is somebody that none of us are talking about at the moment.

You were saying that the message that has come out from this

conference, all this way we used to put them down as sandal-wearing, we

the Lib Dems are now a party of Government and you neat to trade us

seriously. Do you think that's the wrong strategy? I think it is. I

understand why they do it, as they want to be seen as big boys playing

big boys' games. If you think of Lib Dems in marketing terms,

throughout my lifetime they've been a niche product. Imagine if thengs

I don't know, a niche delicatessen on Hampstead high street, the last

thing you would do is compete with Tesco and Sainsbury's. It is a

marketing disaster. You can't compete in that league. In terms of

maximising support in the next election, to maximise support the

last thing you do is say, we are just as good as Labour and the

Tories. You do agree with that or not? The challenge they've got is

to get back the voters who left them and have gone back to Labour.

But the difficulty is, if you have gone back to Labour, at this point,

with Ed Miliband, who has his own problems, will you get them back?

We'll see. A recent poll in the Guardian suggests that the apology

is playing well. The Guardian suggested not. At YouGov we are

finding the same thing. It has not had an effect. We compared it with

Gordon's apology with Bigot-gate and more people think Nick Clegg is

more sincere now than Gordon was then. But his party ratings this

week through the conference, and would expect an uplifrbgts but so

far they are flat lining. -- up lift, but so far they are flat

lining. Let's go to the form leader of the Lib Dems, Paddy Ashdown.

Welcome to the Daily Politics. to be with you Andrew. Two gay old

grizzled heads together. shouldn't speak about yourself and

Peter like that! That's very rude to our guests. You've described

Nick Clegg as the best leader the party's had for 100 years. Why?

Better than me, by the way, that means, which is quite tough for me

to say. I'm a quite little fellow. That isn't difficult. He led the

party into Government, has led it in Government, and that's something

that nobody has done for 100 years. He's done it with unbelievable

grace under fire and he's done a very good job. You are on proper

network television now. extremely good job. Doesn't that

show just how out of touch you are? The polls show 68% think he is

untrustworthy and 75% think he is weak. How long have you been

commentating on politics? About three years. Anything you can do

with opinion polls midterm has no relevance. If you are doing tough

things, and he is, with the party and for the country, you ain't

going to be popular. You know that as well as me. If you remember, and

I'm sure your memory goes back that far, at the first part in the

Thatcher Government she was the most unpopular British Prime

Minister, but she won the next election. Forget it. It is great

fun for you guys to do an opinion poll because it saves you a story,

but one in the middle of the Parliament is completely irrelevant.

Thank you for being rude for a second time to our guests, who are

both pollsters. I love Peter Kellner. I will bring Peter in this

a moment. Who has been the second best leader of your party in 100

years? Who who do you think Andrew Mitchell... I know I'm posh but I'm

not one who swears. I have never accused you of being posh. Who is

the second most popular? Me, Andrew. Is it Lloyd George? By my

arithmetic it takes you to 1912. was a great Prime Minister in the

early days no, doubt about that. Let's get Back To The Future.

get back to the present, if I may. Is Vince Cable the best leader in

waiting? I don't know, because there isn't a leader in waiting. It

is not a question. I know you guys came here wanting to make this a

question and as soon as you found you couldn't you said we are all

miserable. Grimly determined, certainly, but miserable? Not.

this coalition was formed, you were pretty sniffy about the whole idea.

Now you are a big fan. What's changed? I was concerned about it

for about the first two hours, Andrew. Then I saw that NEC's

judgment was absolutely correct. He understood as perhaps some of us

who had fought the old Tory Party hadn't, but that party had changed.

He understood and we have seen it just the depth of the appalling

mess that the last Government left us in. Let me give you two figures.

If we hadn't gone into the coalition, we were carrying then a

debt in Britain equivalent per capita roughly to that of Greece

and Spain. We now have interest rates half of those in Germany. Why

do you think that is? It is because you've got a majority Government

doing tough things. If you hadn't, if we had not done that in the

national interest, your hospitals, your schools, your welfare would

have been slashed far more than they are now but not by accountable

politicians but the marketplace. I didn't want that, the party didn't

want it and we've made sure we evaded on. I would suggest the

interest rates on our bonds are so low is that the Bank of England is

printing money to buy them. You couldn't do that in Europe, which

is where you would have had us if you had your way. You are a fair

man, I don't doubt that quantitative easing is a factor in

that, but if you had a Government almost of any hue, and the only

alternative would have been terrifyingly worse than the present

one, in terms of what's happened to the poor in this country, we would

be in a very much worse situation than we currently are. Look, here

is the point. Nick is I think stig the party, no looking back. He is

dead right to do so. He is saying that our future is inextricably

bound up with that of the country. He is dead right to say so. He is

saying we are one of the three parties of Government, and so we

are. He has said throughout this week that when it comes to taking

the decisions about the scale of the cuts that has to come to

continue to cut the deficit we are determined as Lib Dems to make sure

that we deal with that from the top down, not the bottom up. So just to

clarify, you are in no doubt that Mr Clegg will lead your party into

the next election? No doubt. Alright. What role would you like

to play in the next election? Anything I can that my leader would

like me to do. Do you think you are going to be offered a role in the

next election? And now doubt I will hear that from the leader when he

thinks I should. So you probably will be offered a role in the next

election? No, Andrew, you just heard my answer. When the leader of

my party, who I am devoted for, the best political leader in Britain at

the moment, shown tremendous foresite and determination, when he

wants me to help, I will be on hand to help. When they do that, if they

do that and if I did that, and when they announce that is up to them,

not you and me. I know that. We are just waiting for the announcement.

Could you explain to us, what's In the modern age, it is what you

do in the modern age, the most important part of what you do is

what you do with others. It is the interconnections with nations,

businesses, even between political parties that make you succeed. We

have to get hold of the idea that government is less and less, or

should be less and less, a doer and more and Enabler of networks that

extend beyond governments. It's not quite John F Kennedy, is it? John F

Kennedy was right most of the time. But this is about a new way of

thinking about government. You are interested in that kind of thing.

Have me on the programme later and we will go through it on detail.

I'm not sure we could bear that! What is the third and second?

know me well enough that I was sending myself up ever-so-slightly.

There is no first Ashdown law, no second one. It sounds better if

there is a third one. I will make one or two up for you. Just to help

you along! I have no doubt you will! Peter Kellner would like to

tell you why pollsters matter when there is not an election. Firstly,

what do polls do? They tell you what the public think. I don't

think any politician of any substance, and you are a politician

of substance, you don't really mean it when you say they are worthless.

If you are saying they do not predict the next election, that is

true. If we had subtitles when the politician said I did not take

notice of opinion polls, it should say, I do take notice, but we are

doing badly. You take notice of them, because your party pays to

have them done! We take notice, we look at them. The point about an

opinion poll is that they tell you where you are, not way you're going.

I was careful to say that I do not say they are rubbish sure we are

not paid attention to them. I do say that when looking at a poll,

predicting the outcome of a General Election, which is what has been

going on all week, I agree that they did not predict that outcome.

You and I agree? Thank you. On that point of agreement, I am forced to

bring this to a halt. Agreement is not what we are in the business of.

Go and get your seat and see if you can pick up the first and second

floors. Let's see if you have thought of

them by the end of the programme. One poll has Nick Clegg with the

lowest personal rating of any leader since Michael Foot. That

means it is safe to say that it has not been a great year for him. The

great apology, instantly set to music, was meant to draw a line

under the bad stuff. So far, no sign of that. Here is our look back

There are no easy years when you are in government. We have had to

show real strength in 2011. The next year will be one that poses

many great talent is for everyone. A bill will be brought forward to

reform the composition of the House Members will be aware that the

Government has decided not to proceed with the Lords Reform Bill

during this Parliament. I can confirm that the Government has

I think there is a kind of chemistry. I can see a little bit

There is no easy way to say this. We made a pledge, we did not stick

to it. For that, I am sorry. will fight the 2015 election as Lib

Let's talk about Nick Clegg's year with Kevin Maguire from The Marach

and Quentin Letts from the Daily Mail. A difficult year for Nick

Clegg. What has the atmosphere been like? All of the reports say it has

been downbeat. I'm not sure there has been any atmosphere! It has not

exactly been riveting. It's not really been clear why we have been

here. We might be reaching the point that we have in America,

where they have conventions once every political cycle, rather than

every year. There is no real political need for this conference

to be happening. Dare I ask, have you had a best moment of the week?

I've had a nice time, nice of you to ask. Have I had a best moment,

apart from talking to you? Probably Nick Clegg's Q&A has been the most

interesting moment. He himself remains the key person in his party.

But he is the person way over to the right of the rest of the party.

The Lib Dems as a whole still feel a very left-wing collection of

people, in government with the Tories, rather against their

instincts. Kevin Maguire, you can think about your best moment of the

week. Who has made the best speech? Actually, I will tell you my best

moments straight away. It was actually seeing Vince Clegg

sprinting in the rain... Vince Cable, sorry! He is not too old for

the leadership. He had a fair pace on him, when I saw him. It has been

very flat. I think there will be more people here next week for the

Tesco Wine Show. If you look at the speeches, a lot of them have been

flat. They had a good debate on secret justice, justice is

listening to security evidence in private, rather than public. Paddy

Ashdown, when we were listening to him in earlier, having his banter

with Andrew, the big announcement is going to be that Paddy Ashdown

is going to render Liberal Democrat election campaign in 2015. That

sums up what the week has been about. It's all about Nick Clegg

talking to his party, because he knows the country is not listening.

He needs his party behind him before he can speak to the

electorate. Thank you for revealing that! In terms of the speech, now

it has been brought up. How does he win over his troops? I don't think

he really makes that much effort. He's just telling them, we are

going to continue as before. We are in the middle of a parliament, you

cannot get rid of me, we cannot get rid of the coalition, we have to do

this for the national interest. It is somebody in the middle of a

dental operation, they do not try to change the prognosis. You just

have to stay there and take the pain. That is what his message is

going to be. With all of that pain, has anything got Lib Dems smiling

this week? No. Other than what has been happening to Andrew Mitchell,

the Great Gate-Gate and plebs. They are in coalition with the

Conservatives, I think in Nick Clegg's speech he will attack

Labour Accra more than his coalition partners. They have all

felt here a sense of social superiority to the Tories by saying

that we are not snobbish and sneering like a Arc. We do not see

the electorate as pleb us. They will try to say everything that is

good about the coalition was Liberal Democrat and everything

that was Tory. Andrew Mitchell plays that brilliantly. Is there a

danger of pushing Tory bashing too far? I don't think so. There has

been a bit of childish comment from some delegates. On the whole, it

doesn't amount to more than a bit of name-calling. Mr Clegg is quite

a serene presence, he seems a bit spaced out and he doesn't seem too

concerned about poll ratings. You could argue it means he will be in

more danger. Perhaps he is not counting on being a big figure in

British politics after 2015. What about this identity crisis? Nick

Clegg to the right, the rest of the party to the left? Is that how you

characterise it? You can see the divide opening up between the

Liberals, Nick Clegg and David Laws. The Democrats, Vince Cable and

Others. I think all parties are coalitions in themselves, the same

with Labour and the Conservatives. You are beginning to see that

opening up in the Liberal Democrat party. He's going to find it harder

and harder to keep that together. This conference has been flat. It's

not been brilliant. Maybe he gets away with it this year. You might

get away with it next year. If you get to 2014 and they are still

struggling in the polls, it looks like he is going to be sending his

MPs over the top to be mown down at the General Election, it's going to

get really interesting. There must interesting debate was probably

about assisted dying. In 2014 it may not be assisted, it might be

more violent! On that happy, jovial They will not know about Miriam's

dress. It split the news room. what side are you on? I have no

views on that, as you know. They are very fashion savvy, the Daily

Politics team. Are they?! Oh, yes, they are. Let's get a sense of the

It as traditional as the leader's speech itself, milling around

outside the auditorium waiting for it to start. Let's speak to some of

the delegates that Ikea. Who have we got here, what kind of we

Khadija had? A good week. I think Nick has had a difficult week, but

I'm looking forward to it now. do you want to hear from him?

want him to stand up for what Liberal Democrats stand up for. He

has to say that we are going to stick to our policies, not be

wishy-washy. Where are you from? Cheltenham. What are you going to

be listening for? I want to hear him saying that we are going to

carry on steady, carried out on the course we have set in coalition.

Stick to our guns. We will go and speak to some odd delegates. Excuse

me, you are wrong at the Daily Politics Conference Special. -- You

on the Daily Politics Conference Special. He's going to say you have

to go back to your constituencies and prepare to be shouted at. What

do you feel about that? We are used to being shouted at, we are Liberal

Democrats. The mood has been upbeat. I'm lucky for it to hearing what he

has to say. As it really been that upbeat? The atmosphere has not been

great. It depends what you mean. We are a debating party. For us, being

upbeat means getting our policies across, it's not a stage-managed

thing like the other parties where they do not actually say anything.

Let's talk to some odd delegates around here. What is your name?

Harry, from Haringey. Nick Clegg will say that you cannot be a party

of protest anymore, you have to be serious about being a party in

government, what do you think about that? It resonates, we have been a

party for decades not saying anything, really. Now we have the

Deputy Prime Minister in this government. It doesn't mean we

always get our way. Obviously he is not the Prime Minister, this is not

a Liberal Democrat government. But showing the public and the party

that we are growing into the role of government in a adult way, that

we were not 10 years ago, it is quite an important thing. We have

to convince the country that we are not just a junior coalition party,

but a party capable of taking on the responsibilities of government.

He has to convince the activists. other going to enjoy that?

Obviously, we do not enjoy all that. Even the most hardcore activist,

who remember the days that we can say whatever we wanted without

having to pass it through David Cameron, even they accept the need

to show that we are serious about being in government. At see if we

can find some female activists. What is your name and where right

you from? I am Hannah, from Stoke- on-Trent. Is this a tricky speech

for Nick Clegg? I think it will be a positive message about the Lib

Dems coming-out. I think it will define. That is the positive side.

Do you hope he is going to do so means that about the Tories? No, I

don't think that is helpful. A lot of activists would want him to, but

I don't think it is very helpful. Thank you very much. Let's go and

talk to these guys. How key a moment is this for Nick Clegg?

are halfway through the parliament, people are beginning to see There

is a bit of a slog until the General Election. What we have to

do is get our message across to people and show that we are not

squabbling lefties, worried about peripheral issues. There is serious

business to be done and we are the guys to do it. There has been some

talk about challenges, not very concrete. Are you going to watch

Vince Cable's reactions? Everybody will be watching for reactions. But

I don't think there will be any leadership challenges. We need to

support the party leader in everything he tries to do. He is

going to talk about how you have to be serious about being in

government, not just a protest party. How do you feel about that?

Lots of us have a lot of concerns about what has happened nationally

and in government. But we cannot achieve everything in only part of

government, and we have to be serious about what we can get out

of it. Somebody wants to have the last word. Would you like to have

the last word on the Daily Politics Conference Special before the

speech starts? Do you think we added to get some pleb jokes?

should hope so. It will go down very well with the security guards.

You are in the mood for Tory passion? Absolutely. We will let

you get a good seat in the auditorium. That is a taste of some

of the views here at the Lib Dem Thank you Adam. If Mr Clegg is on

time he will be on his feet in about five minutes. Tim Farron, the

party President we interviewed this morning, has been speaking to

conference. And they've been handing out awards. Someone got an

award for a best press release drafter for an opposition County

Council. I wanted to win that award. Nick Robinson is in Brighton. Nick,

is Mr Clegg going to tell the party faithful in Brighton anything that

they don't already know? This one thing, Andrew, I think. He is

basically going to say to them, in a version of the old football song,

people don't like us but we don't care. In other words, saying to

them, look, our unpopularity is what comes with moving on the

journey, he will describe, from being a party of opposition to a

party of government. He will try to say to them you can't have all that

stuff back that you like so much. You can't go back to the past

before the deal with the Tories, before the compromises, yes, before

the broken promise for which he had to say sorry. The only way forward

is a future that the Lib Dems can say they are one of the three

parties of government. Do you think the Lib Dem activists have ever

thought of themselves as Millwall supporters? Let's see if they chant

today. No, but what they have thought themselves, Andrew, and

that is why the metaphor came to mind, they are used to being liked.

I think what Nick Clegg's message to them is, you are always liked

when frankly you are irrelevant. When you matter, when you're

powerful, when you take decisions, then people have a reason to hate

you. He is not going to use this language, let me stress, there

won't be a Millwall chant, but what his broad message is, this is how

it was going to be if we were ever going to get from being a party of

opposition to a party of government, so embrace it, move on and try to

stay a party of government. Your first question implied, would he

say anything new? On policy, they won't. He regards this as a

conversation with the party on how they are changing, and with the

country it is hoped how lit change, not a time to release policy. We

saw one this morning, a premium for kids who are struggling when they

left primary school, a �500 premium to help them into secondary school.

All speeches at these events, they have to address the party faithful

and through television they have to speak to the wider public. But in

your view, will this speech be more directed towards the party faithful

than to the rest of us, the voters? I think it is to this extent. Nick

Clegg came to this conference very well aware that many of his own

activists feared that they were electorally doomed. That they were

in a car racing at 100 miles per hour for an electoral brick wall

and there is no way they could get the driver out of the driving seat

and they had to live with it. He is trying to tackle that fatalism, if

you like. He is trying to say, that is wrong, that is to look at it in

the wrong way, that if this Government can turn round the

economy, if as he claims the Lib Dems can do it in a way that is

fair, then even though the polls don't show it, even though he is

unpopular, and many people predict electoral doom for them, they can

turn it round. You are right, first and foremost it is for them. But

there are long passages in this speech, where they are looking at

the world, basically saying that Britain faces a unique set of

challenges, not just the ones we know about, the eurozone crisis,

the collapse of the banks and the like, but the rise of the East and

the ageing population, and creating a new economy, as he will refer to

it from the ashes of an old one could prove difficult. Do Mr

Clegg's people fear even if the economy starts to turn around, I

know they can't use the phrase, even if the green shoots, if there

are green shoots and they grow into something bigger, are they not

afraid even if that happens they might not get the credit for it? Sn

that the Conservatives will sweep up all the credit. Sure, I'm sure

they are afraid, Andrew, but you can only deal with one fear at once.

Worrying about electoral o believe onprobably comes first, I would

have thought. My sense is, what they are trying to do here is deal

with that sense that there is no way out. Of course they know that's

an anxiety. When you talk to a lot of Lib Dems behind the scenes

there's a degree of relief here that there wasn't from a few months

ago. It is for a reason that hasn't been talked about at this

conference, it's the ends of proposals for boundary changes.

Most people thought they were bad news for the Conservatives. David

Cameron said it would be fairer if there were the same number of

voters in every seat. Would have given a real boost to his party in

the legislation. But Lib Dems do best where they have had the same

MP for years. It is call to do so incumbency effect. But the fear was

if the boundaries changed and the electors didn't know them, they

would be vulnerable. Many now feel that if they are in a seat where

they face the Conservatives, many will say you still prefer us to the

Tories, keep us in. I want to dip into the hall to see how things are

building up. They are correcting money. Money is always important

for parties. The Lib Dems are no different from anybody else in that.

They are raising money now, passing around the bucket, the men and

women in their Yellow Shirts. Peter, you are listening to Nick and you

were saying to me that you think Mr Clegg clearly lives to fight

another day. There's been no leadership talk of any importance

at this conference. There may not even be next year, but you were

saying that the summer of 2014 could be a dangerous time for the

Liberal leader? I think that's right. And why? Because in that

months, 11 months before the general election, we have the

European Parliament elections. These are strange things. They are

proportional elections. Last time, 2009, the Lib Dems came fourth.

Conservatives, UKIP, larks then the Lib Dems. They got -- Labour, and

then the Lib Dems. The way they are at the moment I wouldn't be

surprised if they ended up fifth, behind the Greens. Instead of just

about winning short in every region they fall short, so instead of

having a dozen euro MPs they go down to three or four. Think about

the politics of the party in those circumstances. We've got less than

a year to go until the general election, we have been thrashed.

The public clearly don't like us. It is not merely uppity folk like

Ben Page and I looking at polling numbers. This is millions of votes

around the country. That says that we need to pull out of the

coalition, that summer they will put pressure on Nick Clegg to stand

down and get a new leader for that party conference in September.

think they will be like the Labour Party of Gordon. Lots of them

thought about it but at the last mint they couldn't bring themselves.

Wait and see. Nick, no leadership challenge at this conference,

although there had been speculation there might be. Have you had the

sense if there was to be a leadership challenge, because

things aren't getting better, because they get a terrible kicking

in the European elections, am I right in thinking that it is quite

clear that Mr Cable is now the clear Ayr apparent, the

frontrunner? Yes -- heir apparent, the frontrunner? Yes, and looking

ahead to 2014, if Peter is right and the elections are that dire for

the Lib Dems, there is another possibility in the air, that the

Labour Party and Ed Miliband win. Could Nick Clegg possibly do a deal

with him? After all, he's been living in this marriage with David

Cameron for so long. Some Lib Dems would say, let's get a Labour-

facing leader, and Vince Cable is man to wield the knife? I've been

talking to a lot of senior Lib Dem here and they don't believe he is.

In order he is a man who wants to be there and seen to be there if

people come calling but is not willing to stage a coup and shows

no sign of doing it. If Nick Clegg shows, as he is trying to at this

conference niche speech, a determination to ballot on come

what may, he will be pretty difficult to get rid of.

The wise old men, Nick say it would be difficult to get rid of Nick

Clegg but the party has shown some met until getting rid of leaders.

True. Some Tories say to me they want to encourage Vince Cable for

the interesting reason they think Vince Cable would be more likely to

attract back essentially long-time Labour voters who had voted Lib Dem,

gone back to Labour but may be more inclined to go back to the Lib Dems

if Vince Cable was leading them? That is possible. Where the third-

placed Labour votes switchs to the Lib Dems, they need to get that

back to the Lib Dems. Incidents lyrics I'm not sure there'll be a

coup. I think what will happen, it will happen behind closed doors,

Nick Clegg will be persuaded to stand aside and to seek his future

in Europe or the United Nations or whatever. Or Spanish politics.

it was blood on the carpet I suspect it would be Dev

statementing for them. It has to be a smooth transfer and Nick Clegg

will have to play his path. If he is genuinely determined to stay on,

he will be hard to get rid of. a pretty big if, Andrew. One thing

we do know is that things rarely go to schedule at Lib Dems conferences.

They haven't even started the video yet, which is going to precede Mr

Clegg's speech. We are told he is going to speak for about 45 minutes

and have some quite harsh words, harsh is maybe not the right word,

but straight-talking words to his party faithful, that they are in

what they are in and there is no way of getting out of it is. There

a sense of fatalism that they are where they are, the die is cast,

they can't do a runner, they are going to hope the coalition

economic policies go right and live with the consequences? That is a

very good sum-up of what's here. People have come to these

conference as couple of years running and saying maybe there is a

leadership challenge, anger on the floor. There hasn't been. Yes

there's been concern. Yes you can find people who say, I wish we

weren't in bed with the Tories, but there isn't that spirit of

rebellion. Anybody who is really angry isn't here. They've left,

resigned, they want nothing to do with this party. That is probably

why their vote that dramatically halved the way it has, but it means

the party is more united. It reflects on the what if about a

leadership challenge. When Ming Campbell was moved as leader it was

partly because the next generation, the young people in the Lib Dems,

young shadow Ministers, said, "Our future is not with Ming." You look

around the people now in the Lib Dems, it is hard to see prominent

allies of Vince Cable. I see a lot of people like the David Laws and

the Jeremy Brownes and others who are clear allies and have been put

there for that reason. Interesting that Paddy Ashdown is coming to the

foreagain. That is saying to the party, look, you might not like me

but you love Paddy. He is on board. Ming Campbell is clearly on board

for the Clegg project. There would have to be a mass collective sense

of doom I think for them to go to Nick Clegg and ask him to go. As

well as a sense that they all knew who would replace him. What we've

always discovered in politics, and that is what kept Gordon in his

place, they can all agree it is a disaster but not what's next.

Kellner? This point about Paddy Ashdown, if he is going to lead the

election campaign, that is interesting. Paddy Ashdown was not

only an effective leader, a popular leader, which led to its

breakthrough in 1997 when its doubled the number of MPs. But

Paddy was the man who led the pro- Labour argument inside the Lib Dem

leadership. Paddy wanted to see if it was possible to do a deal with

Gordon or another Labour leader. It wasn't possible and Paddy accepted

that it wasn't, but Paddy is with Vince Cable on the progressive

realignment side of the Lib Dems rather than the straight down the

middle let's talk to the right side that Nick Clegg is in. So putting

Paddy in to the leadership means that if Nick Clegg does lead them

into the next legislation he is bolting in an important part of the

Labour-inclined faction into that Had there been signs in which the

activist in particular are positioning themselves to say, if

we have to go into coalition next time, can we make it the Labour

Party? Let's make it a position to be in bed with them instead? Every

aspect of this conference has been advertising differences with the

Tories that make the Lib Dems look more like a party of the Left,

whether it is the environment, mocking the Tories were saying you

can vote blue and go green, fairness, wealth taxes or helping

the poor. But this conference debated the central issue in

British politics, the economy. And Vince Cable, the man of the left,

who we are told wants to get in bed with the Labour Party, secretly,

stood up and said he had personal sympathy for George Osborne, stay

to the course. There we can see Nick Clegg going to the podium,

taking the applause of the party faithful as he begins his address

to the Liberal Democrat Party conference. The Deputy Prime

Minister, Nick Clegg, leader of the Colleagues, this summer, as we

cheer our athletes to gold, after gold, after gold, Britain

remembered how it feels to win again. But, more importantly, we

remembered what it takes to win again. Whether from Jess Ennis, Mo

Farah or, Sarah Storey or David Weir, the message was the same. We

may be the ones on the podium, but behind each of us stands at coach.

Behind the coach stands 18. Behind the team, the organisers, the

volunteers, the supporters. Behind them, a whole city, an entire

country. The UK nations, united behind one goal. What a contrast

from a year ago. When England's cities burned in a week of riots.

When the images beamed to the world would not of athletes running for

the finishing line, but the mob, running at police officers. When

the flames climbed, not from the Olympic torch in east London, but a

furniture shop in south London. A 140-year-old, family run business

which survived two world wars and countless recessions, raised to the

ground. Of course, even then, amid the smoke and embers, we saw our

country's true character when residents came out onto the streets

to clear up the mess. And we saw it again this summer, when the Reeves

furniture shop in Croydon reopened in new premises, the walls decked

with photos of young people holding up messages of hope. Who put those

pictures up? Young volunteers from Croydon and and 81-year-old man

called Maurice Reeves. Like three generations before him, he ran the

shop before handing it over to his son. Maurice, your example should

You see, what Maurice has shown, what our Olympians and Paralympians

have reminded us is that, for most people, success does not come easy

or quick. That is what our culture of instant celebrity obscures. That

real achievement, in the real world, takes time, effort, perseverance

and resilience. The war veteran, a victim of a roadside bomb in

Afghanistan, competing at the Paralympics. The businessman, a

victim of an arson attack in south London, serving his customers again.

The millions of people up and down the country who, no matter how

heroic or mundane their battles, keep going, keep trying, keep

working, whatever life throws at them. These are the qualities that

will see our country through these tough times. These are the

qualities that will guide our party through tough times as well. So,

let's take our example from the British people, as, together, we

embark on the journey ahead. Our party, from the comforts of

opposition, to the hard reality of government. Our country, from the

sacrifice is a war austerity to the rewards of shared prosperity. Two

journeys, linked. The success of each, depending on the success of

the other. Neither will be easy and neither will be quicker. But it

will be worth it. And be in no doubt, if we secure our country's

As a politician, you get used to receiving criticism and praise from

the strangest quarters. But even I was taken a little by surprise by

the fulsome backing a received on the comment pages of the Daily

Telegraph on Monday. The article praised my judgment, my policies,

Marian, of course. And then I saw who it was by. A certain Alexander

Boris Johnson. At least he has found one party leader he is

Colleagues, we live in a time of profound change. Almost

revolutionary in its pace and scale. Here in Britain, we are faced with

a gargantuan task of building a new economy from the rubble of the old.

We are doing so at a time when our main export market, the eurozone,

is facing its biggest crisis since it was formed. While the European

economy has stalled, countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, India and

China continue to grow, and at a phenomenal rate. The potential

consequences of this shift in power, should we in the West failed to

respond, cannot, in my view, be overstated. Our influence in the

world, our standard of living, our ability to fund our public services

and maintain our culture of openness and tolerance. All are in

the balance. Power would move, not only away from the liberal and

democratic world, but we did it, too. From moderates to hardliners.

From international this too isolationist. From those committed

to the politics of co-operation to those hell-bent on confrontation.

If history has taught us anything, it is that the extremists thrive in

tough times. Yes, if we fail to deal with our debts and tackle the

weaknesses in our economy, our country will pay a heavy political

price. But the human cost would be higher still. Not only would we

fall behind internationally, we would leave a trail of victims at

home as well. So, to those who ask, incredulously, what we, the Liberal

Democrats, are doing cutting public spending, I simply say this. Who

suffers most when governments go bust? When they can no longer pay

salaries, benefits and pensions? Not the bankers and the hedge fund

managers, that is for sure. No, it would be de Paul, the old, the

infirm, those with police to fall back on. -- the poor. Labour might

have thought it was funny, after crashing the economy and racking up

record debts, to leave a note on David Bowles' desk, saying there is

no money left. But it is no joke for the most vulnerable in our

society, the people that Labour claim to represent, but let down

the most. Let's take no more lectures about betrayal. It was

Labour who plunged us into austerity and it is we, the Liberal

You know, it is easy to forget sometimes that the debate we are

having in this country is actually playing out across our continent.

It is a debate between those who understand how much the world has

changed and those who don't. Between those who understand the

need to adapt to those changes and those who balk at the size of the

challenge. The fate of every European country, ours included,

will depend on the outcome. In the coming years, some countries will

get their own house in order. But some will mark. Those that do will

continue to write their own budgets, set their own priorities and to

shape their own futures. Those that do not will find their right to

self-determination withdrawn by the markets and new rules imposed by

their creditors without warning or clemency. That it will never happen

to us is just blithely assumed. The comparisons with Greece, breezily

dismissed. Yet it is the decisions we take, and as a government, as a

party, that will determine whether we succeed or fail. For the first

time, the future is ours. Hours to Now, hour journey from austerity to

prosperity starts, of course, with economic rescue. Dealing with our

debts and delivering growth. If you listen to Labour, you can be

forgiven for thinking that austerity is a choice, that the

sacrifices it involves can be avoided. If we only had acted Ed

Balls's latest press release, we would be instantly transported to

that fantasy world where there is no boom-and-bust and the money

never runs out. But the truth is this. There is no silver bullet

that will instantly solve all of our economic problems. Some of our

problems are structural. Others, international. All will take time

to overcome. We are dealing with an ongoing surge in global energy,

food and commodity prices. And extends to ensure crisis in the

eurozone. A banking collapse that, more than four years on, is still

blocking the arteries of our entire economic system. Against these

forces, the idea that if government deregulated a bit more, as Lin Fox

proposes, or borrowed and spent a bit more, like Ed Balls proposes,

that we would, at a stroke, achieve long and lasting growth is just not

credible. In my experience, if you are being attacked by Liam Fox from

one side and Ed Balls from the other, you are in the right place,

You see, what is needed, and what we are delivering, is a plan that

is tough enough to keep the bond markets of our backs. Yet, flexible

enough to support demand. A plan that allowed us, when the forecast

worsened last year, to reject calls for further spending cuts or tax

rises and balance the budget over a longer timescale. A plan that, even

at the end of this Parliament, will see public spending account for 42%

of GDP. Higher than at any point between 1995 and 2008, when the

banks collapsed. A plan that, because it commands the confidence

of the markets, has given those room to create a business bank,

provide billions of pounds of infrastructure and housebuilding

guarantees and and �80 billion Funding for Lending scheme, the

biggest of its kind anywhere in the world. Of course, so much of this

is about perception. People keep telling me we should be doing what

Barack Obama did with his fiscal stimulus. What they do not tell you

is that much of what the President had to legislate for we are already

doing automatically. So, let's not allow the caricature of what we are

doing to go unchallenged. If Plan A really was as rigid and dogmatic as

our critics claim, I would be demanding a Plan B and getting

Danny and Vincent to design it. But it isn't. Which is why you were

right, earlier this week, to overwhelmingly reject the call for

us to change our economic course. We have taken big and bold steps to

support demand and boost growth. And we stand ready to do so, again,

again and again until self- APPLAUSE

Of course, arguments about economic theory are of no interest to the

millions of people just struggling to get by right now. The home-help

whose earnings barely cover the cost of childcare. The builder who

knows the company will be laying people off, but doesn't yet know if

he'll be one of them. The couple who want to buy their first home

but can't raise the money for a deposit. To them and to all the

other hard working families just trying to stay afloat, I say this:

the Liberal Democrats are on your side. You are the ones we are in

Government to serve. Not with empty rhetoric but real practical help.

That is why we promised to cut your income tax bills by raising the

personal allowance to �10,000. So you can keep more of the money you

have worked for. So your effort will be properly rewarded. So the

task of making ends meet is made that little bit easier. At the last

Budget, we made two big announcements: that we were

spending �3,000 million increasing the tax-free allowance, and just

�50 million reducing the top rate of tax while recouping five times

that amount in additional taxes on the wealthiest. I insisted on the

first. I conceded the second. But I stand by the package as a whole.

Why? Because as Liberals, we want to see the tax on work reduced, the

tax on unearned wealth increased, and the system as a whole tilted in

favour of those on low and middle incomes. The Budget delivered all

three. But let me make one thing clear: Now that we have brought the

top rate of tax down to 45p - a level, let's not forget, that is

still higher than throughout Labour's 13 years in office - there

can be no question of reducing it further in this Parliament.

All future cuts in personal taxation must pass one clear test:

do they help people on low and middle incomes get by and get on?

It's as simple as that. At the next election, all parties will have to

acknowledge the need for further belt tightening. That much is

inescapable. But the key question we will all have to answer is who

will have to tighten their belts the most? Our position is clear. If

we have to ask people to take less out or pay more in, we'll start

with the richest and work our way down, not the other way around. We

won't waver in our determination to deal with our debts. But we will do

it in our own way, according to our own plans, based on our own values.

So we will not tether ourselves to detailed spending plans with the

Conservatives through the next Parliament. Colleagues, we should

be proud of the fact we have delivered fairer taxes in tough

times. We should be proud of the fact that we're taking 2 million

people out of income tax altogether and delivering a �700 tax cut for

more than 20 million others, and should never miss an opportunity to

tell people about it. But as we do so, remember this: our tax cuts,

like our extra support for childcare, for schools, for

pensioners - these are not stand- alone consumer offers. They are

part of a broader agenda of economic and social reform to

reward work, enhance social mobility and secure Britain's

position in a fast changing world. In short, national renewal. That is

our mission. Our policies either serve that purpose, or they serve

One of the things about governing is it forces you to confront the

inconvenient truths oppositions choose to ignore. Like the fact

that, over the last 50 years, our economy has grown threefold, but

our welfare spending is up sevenfold. Or the fact that, to

sustain our spending, we are still borrowing �1 billion every three

days. Or that, as a result of that borrowing, we now spend more

servicing the national debt than we do on our schools. In combination,

these three facts present us with a fundamental challenge: to not only

regain control of public spending, but to completely redirect it so

that it promotes, rather than undermines, prosperity. How we do

that - how we reshape the British state for the economic challenges

of the 21st century - is a debate I want our party to lead. For there

are only two ways of doing politics: by following opinion, to

get yourself on the populist side of each issue, or by leading

opinion, and standing on the future side of each issue. The first

brings short-term rewards, of course it does. But the big prizes

are for those with the courage and vision to get out in front, set the

agenda and point the way. So let us take the lead in building a new

economy for the new century. An open, outward-looking economy in

the world's biggest single market. A strong, balanced economy built on

productive investment, not debt- fuelled consumption. An innovative,

inventive economy driven by advances in science and research.

And yes, a clean, green economy too, powered by the new low-carbon

technologies. Britain leading the But I have to tell you, we will not

succeed in this last task unless we can see off that most short-sighted

of arguments: that we have to choose between going green and

going for growth. Decarbonising our economy isn't just the right thing

to do, it's a fantastic economic opportunity. The green economy in

Britain is growing strongly right now, bringing in billions of pounds

and creating thousands of jobs - in wind, solar and tidal energy; the

technologies that will power our economy in the decades to come.

Going green means going for growth. But more than that, it means going

for more energy that we produce ourselves and which never runs out;

it means going for clear air and clean water and a planet we can

proudly hand over to our children. Going green means going forward. So

let the Conservatives be in no doubt. We will hold them to their

promises on the environment. APPLAUSE

Of course, there was a time when it looked like they got it. It seems a

long time ago now. When the Tories were going through their naturalist

phase. The windmills gently turning, the sun shining in. As a PR

exercise, it was actually quite brilliant. Until, at last year's

party conference, they went and ruined it all, admitting that you

can't in fact "vote blue and go green". Well of course you can't.

To make blue go green you have to add yellow, and that's exactly what

we're doing. APPLAUSE I thought you would groan rather

than clap at that one. What's a generous audience.

As we plot our path from austerity to prosperity, we need to remember

that nothing we do will make a decisive difference if we don't

make the most important investment of all: in the education and

training of our young people. For we will only fulfil our collective

economic potential, if we fulfil our individual human potential. Yet

the legacy of educational inequality in Britain is an economy

operating at half power, with far too many young people never getting

the qualifications they could get, never doing the jobs they could do,

never earning the wages they could earn. The true cost of this cannot

be counted in pounds and pence. Yes it's a huge drag on our economy,

but more than that, it is an affront to natural justice and to

everything we Liberal Democrats stand for. Because if you strip

away all the outer layers to expose this party's philosophical core,

what do you find? An unshakeable belief in freedom. Not the tinny

sound of the libertarian's freedom - still less the dead thud of the

Socialist's - but the rich sound of Liberal freedom, amplified and

sustained by the thing that gives it real meaning: opportunity. The

freedom to be who you are. APPLAUSE The opportunity to be who you could

be. That, in essence, is the Liberal promise. And that is why

this party has always been - and must always be - the party of

education. Because just as there can be no real freedom without

opportunity, so there can be no real opportunity without education.

Every parent knows how it feels when you leave your child on their

first day at school. That last look they give you before the door

closes behind them. The instinct to go with them, to protect them, to

help them every step of the way. That's how we should feel about

every child. That's the responsibility we have to every

parent. To support them at every stage: from nursery to primary,

from primary to secondary and from secondary to college, university or

work. That's why we're providing more money so the poorest two-year-

olds, as well as every three and four-year-old, can now benefit from

pre-school education. Delivering our Pupil Premium - �900 per child

next year - so the most disadvantaged children get the more

intensive, more personalised support they need. And why, when

they leave school, we're providing scholarships, bursaries, grants,

loans, apprenticeships and wage subsidies, to help them go on

learning or start earning. But extra resources won't make a

difference unless matched by greater ambition. Which is why

money must be accompanied by reform. Reform to ensure all children can

read and write. To make schools focus on the performance of every

child. To turn around failing schools, and put more pressure on

coasting schools. And yes, reform to replace GCSEs, not with an O

Level, but with a new more rigorous qualification that virtually every

child will be able to take, and every well taught child will be

able to pass. And to ensure they do, I can announce that from this year,

we will provide a new 'catch-up premium' - an additional �500 for

every child who leaves primary school below the expected level in

English or maths. APPLAUSE If you're a parent whose child has

fallen behind, who fears they might get lost in that daunting leap from

primary to secondary school; and who is worried by talk about making

exams tougher, let me reassure you. We will do whatever it takes to

make sure your child is not left behind. A place in a summer school;

catch-up classes; one-to-one tuition; we are providing the help

they need. So yes, we're raising the bar. But we're ensuring every

I am proud of the resolve we Liberal Democrats have shown over

the last two and a half years. We've had some real disappointments.

Tough election results, a bruising referendum. My song, not making it

into the top 10... But through it all, we have remained focused,

determined, disciplined. It hasn't always been easy, and, when we've

made mistakes, we've put our hands up. But we've stuck to our task and

to the Coalition Agreement even as others have wavered. The received

wisdom, prior to the election, was that we wouldn't be capable of

making the transition from opposition to government. The

choices would be too sharp, the decisions too hard. The Liberal

Democrats, it was said, are a party of protest, not power. Well, two

years on, the critics have been confounded. Our mettle has been

tested in the toughest of circumstances, and we haven't been

found wanting. We have taken the difficult decisions to reduce the

deficit by a quarter and have laid the foundations for a stronger,

more balanced economy capable of delivering real and lasting growth.

But, conference, our task is far from complete, our party's journey

far from over. I know that there are some in the party, some in this

hall even, who, faced with several more years of spending restraint,

would rather turn back than press on. Break our deal with the

Conservatives, give up on the Coalition, and present ourselves to

the electorate in 2015 as a party unchanged. It's an alluring

prospect in some ways. Gone would be the difficult choices, the hard

decisions, the necessary compromises. And gone too would be

the vitriol and abuse, from Right and Left, as we work every day to

keep this Government anchored in the centre ground. But, conference,

I tell you this. The choice between the party we were, and the party we

are becoming, is a false one. The past is gone and it isn't coming

back. If voters want a party of opposition, a "stop the world I

want to get off" party they've got plenty of options, but we are not

one of them. There's a better, more Not as the third party, but as one

There's been a lot of discussion on the fringe of this conference about

our party's next steps, about our relationship with the other parties

and about what we should do in the event of another hung parliament.

It's the sort of discussion politicians love. Full of

speculation and rumour. But I have to tell you, it is all based on a

false, and deeply illiberal, assumption. That it is we, rather

than the people, who get to decide. In a democracy, politicians take

So let's forget all the Westminster gossip and focus on what really

matters. Not our relationship with the other parties, but our

relationship with the British people. Imagine yourself standing

on the doorstep in 2015 talking to someone who hasn't decided who to

vote for. This is what you'll be able to say, we cut taxes for

ordinary families and made sure the wealthiest paid their fair share.

We put more money into schools to give every child a chance. We did

everything possible to get people into work - millions of new jobs

and more apprenticeships than ever before. And we did the right thing

by our older people too - the biggest ever cash rise in the state

pension. But most importantly, we brought our country back from the

Then ask them, are you ready to trust Labour with your money again?

And do you really think the Tories will make Britain fairer? Because

the truth is, only the Liberal Democrats can be trusted on the

economy and relied upon to deliver And to help get that message out

there, I can announce today that Paddy Ashdown has agreed to front

up our campaign as chair of the He's pretending he doesn't like the

limelight. He loves it, come on. I must admit, I'm not quite sure I'm

ready for all those urgent e-mails and 5am phone calls. But I can't

think of anyone I'd rather have by my side. Paddy, it's great to have

50, 60 years ago, before I was born, small groups of Liberal activists

would meet up to talk politics and plan their campaigns. Stubborn and

principled, they ignored the cynics who mocked them. They simply

refused to give up on their dreams. They refused to accept that

Liberals would never again be in government. And they refused to

accept that Liberalism, that most decent, enlightened and British of

creeds, which did so much to shape our past, would not shape our

We think we've got it tough now. But it was much, much tougher in

their day. It was only their resolve, their resilience and their

unwavering determination that kept the flickering flame of Liberalism

alive through our party's darkest At our last conference in Gateshead,

I urged you to stop looking in the rear view mirror as we journey from

the party of opposition that we were, to the party of government we

are becoming. But before we head off on the next stage of our

journey, I want you to take one last look in that mirror to see how

far we've come. I tell you what I see. I see generations of Liberals

marching towards the sound of gunfire. And yes, I see them going

back to their constituencies to It took us a while but we got there

These are the people on whose shoulders we stand. They never

flinched, and nor should we. We owe it to them to seize the opportunity

they gave us, but which they never had. Taking on the vested interests.

Refusing to be bullied. Refusing to give up. Always overturning the

odds. Fighting for what we believe in, because we know that nothing

worthwhile can be won without a battle. A fair, free and open

society. That's the prize. So let's Mr Clegg's speech comes Townend.

Everybody gets to their feet, including his wife, Miriam. Shorter

than many parties beaches. We had been told to expect 45 minutes. No

doubt be unkind would say that is because he never got the pause he

expected. A pretty low-key speech. At points, it sounded more like a

lecture than a party conference speech. Constant theme, whether it

was the Olympics, the Liberals at a time when they only had six MPs and

could all get in the same taxi, it was that to get things right takes

time. The idea is that you resonate today that they cannot turn around

the economy in two and-a-half years, they have to stick with it because

they are on the right to path, as he claimed, and that it will come

right and they will be vindicated. Indeed, he said the party's future

is tied to the country. If things come right for the country, they

will come right for the party. In history, that hasn't always been

true, as Winston Churchill discovered in 1945. There were

attacks on Labour and the Tories. But they only really on the Tories

about whether they were sticking to their green credentials or not. He

claimed that the Lib Dems, in coalition, had brought the economy

back from the brink. And that is what mattered more than anything

else. He is making his way out of the conference will now. The

standing ovation continuing. Certainly cannot be called a

rabble-rousing speech. And no new policy initiatives of any great

significance were announced. There was some word of extra money for

primary school children who have struggled to master reading and

writing by the time they leave primary schools. But there was no

great changes in policy or taking on of existing policy. It was very

much a steady-as-she-goes speech. As I was saying to Nick Robinson

before, you get a sense that they know the die is cast. They have

made their bed, they have to lie in it and they have to hope that the

British economy comes right and they get at least some of the

credit for it coming right. What has been hanging over the

conference is that it might not come right and they will be

consigned to oblivion. Or it might come right all they do not get the

credit for it. There were a -- not a lot of e-mails coming in.

reaction was rather thin. There was not much either way, in praise of

criticising the speech. By La Scala guests to comment on it it was as a

result of people being underwhelmed or they just didn't have anything

to say. These are some of the males we got. David said, how realistic

is it for the UK economy to go bust? What on earth does he mean

and what hope is he giving as? Where is the hope and vision? This,

from George Howlett. This was in response to the Liberal Democrats'

pledge on tuition fees and the apology that we have talked about

so much. It has been put to music. Interesting that the main focus of

the speech was education, he talked about the Pupil Premium and money

being given to struggling pupils. He says, we, as a family, feel

betrayed. Our twin boys have gone to university, and we will have

debts of �300,000. The apology is obviously not working there. Daniel

Colgan says that the Liberal Democrats must accept that

austerity is a massive failure in Britain, as in Europe, and must

work harder to prevent the Tories harming the poor and vulnerable.

Roger Fletcher says if the Liberal Democrats were in power, the

furniture shop owner would not have been able to pass his business to

his sons, as they frowned upon inherited, unearned wealth. He got

a pretty good reception, as we can see. As good as we could expect in

circumstances. It is a tough time for the Lib Dems. They found it

difficult to make the transition from being a party of oppositional

protesting to government. It's a time that is not a good time to be

in government. Let's go to our political editor, Nick Robinson. He

has just run back from the conference for today the politics

point and the centre. What did you make of it? Maurice Reeves, the man

that lost his business in the riots in Croydon, was clearly meant to be

the symbol of this speech. He was the owner of that shop at the end

to the ground. I thought Nick Clegg was saying, to his party, I know

you think I am reducing the party to ashes, but you can rebuild. If

you use words like resilience, perseverance, effort, resolve, it

was peppered with references that were essentially a pet talk -- pep-

talk to the troops. You're never going to be liked again, that is

all gone, it's not about being liked, it's about becoming a

convincing party of government. He was trying to persuade them that

they could be that and it was a prize worth having. In many ways,

it was very different from a Tony Blair speech, even in the way it

was could doubt by the party. It contains a long sentences, long

paragraphs, all of the typing is close together. It is more like a

lecture, really, to the Lib Dems on the party that they are in and how

there is no alternative. You and I will remember that we used to give

Mr Blair's speeches, sentences without verbs, paragraphs that were

only one sentence? That's true. When we get these speeches, we get

them just before they are delivered, you go through them with your pen

or pencil and you instantly say, there is the soundbite. It was not

an easy speech when you got the text or when you heard it to pick

out those easy soundbites. I think that was for a reason. He was

trying to have a conversation with the country about the state of

their country. He was listing more of those problems, not just the

threat of the eurozone and the banking crisis, but the ageing

population and all the rest of it, trying to say to the party, look,

we've really got no choice now. We have made our choice as a party, he

was telling them, to go into coalition with the Tories. We made

our choices, we broke some promises and said sorry, the only way his

forwards. Therefore, I thought it was an argument with them, a

conversation with them that he was having, rather than a series of

their elaborately scripted clap He did say something which would

jar with a lot of people who are not Lib Dems. He said we've pulled

the economy back from the brink. We were now on the right path, he said.

A lot of people will look at the lack of growth in the economy, the

deficit is rising again, living standards being squeezed, wages not

keeping pace with inflation, and they'll say no, we are still on the

brink. Hold on a second, they are going to say to that. It is

interesting, in private Ministers, including Nick Clegg, would say

things they would never say things they would say in public. They are

well that were the data could be wrong, the the eurozone crisis

could get worse and not get better. But the phrase that is so toxic

that they can't say nit private does emerge in private, the green

shoots. They look at the employment figures, the P mifplt data, the

service sector, and say it is -- the PMI data, the service sector,

and say it is getting a little better. The message was a blunt one.

When he talked of two journeys, a journey for the party and one for

the country, if we can get the economy moving again, his party

will be OK. Implied by that is if we can't, we won't, and we'll be in

real troubling. There was a dog that didn't bark. He had nothing

expolice it to say to his own people about any kind of trade-off

between more cuts in public spending, a freeze on welfare, a

cut on some benefits and the Lib Dem demand for more taxes on the

affluent and the wealthy. It has been the kind of quid pro quo

that's been talked about but he nothing to say about that, did he?

No, what has been striking all week is that the Lib Dems have been

insist they wouldn't do a series of things I know the Conservatives

aren't really pressing for. They wouldn't cut income tax, he said

today, beyond 45p. I don't know a single Conservative Minister who is

arguing they should cut tax below the election to 40p. They have to

freeze some benefits, but the Treasury has long accepted that

that is not going to happen. And he wouldn't cut �10 billion off the

welfare budget. That was a figure the Chancellor used as an

illustration of what would have to come off two years of budget 2015-

17 to avoid cuts in other public services. And therefore if they are

only going to deal on one year there is never going to be a �10

billion cut in welfare. That isn't as some have suggested that the Lib

Dems haven't got the policies or are hiding them. The truth is we

negotiating period. It is going to last very many months. Stage one is

the Autumn Statement on December 59, stage two is the Spending Review in

autumn 2013, and there'll be a tug- of-war in the Government in which

the Lib Dems are clear they will say, you need to do something to to

show that you are putting a tax burden on the wealthy. I doubt very

much it would be a mansion tax. It could be tax relief on pensions.

And the Tories in return will say, that's all very well but we want

some cuts on welfare that. Wrestling match behind the scenes

will go on in private. What makes coalition so interesting, and it is

unlike any period we've seen, is a lot of it seeps out in public.

Because he leads his own party, he is not a Conservative, he has to

put down his red lines and make his negotiating positions in public

without giving any of the detail of what's going on in private. Lut me

spatchcock two cliches together, he lives to fight another day but he

is not out of the woods yet by any means The great thing about cliches

Andrew is that they are usually true. You are right. The talk of

leadership challenges at conference never really happened. Frankly the

idea, I Googled the man on the front page of one Sunday newspaper

calling for Nick Clegg to go, and I still didn't know he was.

Apparently he is a member of the House of Lords, haven't a clue who

Lord Smith is, never met him. The problem was not some plot or coup

attempt or a deal but a sense anxiety, that this party thought,

my goodness me, how do we get out of this mess? We are locked to

unpopular Tories, and Nick Clegg is linked to breaking his words and

with David Cameron. How do we ever put ourselves in a position to win

seats, or if we can't win enough to do a deal with Labour if that's

what the electorate choose after the election. What Nick Clegg has

been saying to them is don't think you do it by ditching the coalition,

by ditching me, don't think you do it by change course. You do it by

showing you are a mature and proper party of government that can make

difficult choices. And for that, he is telling them, you will get your

reward. The challenge, of course, just before you ask me in

conclusion Andrew, the challenge will come if at the 2013 conference

or the 2014 conference reward comes there none. Indeed. Nick, thank you

for joining us. We'll let you go and prepare for the main news

tonight on the BBC. Nick Robinson there, the BBC's political editor.

Jo? Our guests are Ben Page and Peter Kellner. You've survived the

speech! I've stayed awake. Your first impressions. It is not a

conversation with the country. Most people in Britain are going to be o

believe yus to this. He's stuck to his theme. It has got a few

horrible bad jokes in it. One thing that stood out, the couple being

trusted on the economy and on essential justice and that is the

pitch against the Conservatives, a pitch that the Liberal Democrats

are moderating the Conservatives, and of course a pitch to those

sleerts he's lost since the general election. -- the voters he's lost

since the general election. But trying to find the third way, as we

heard in that speech, it is not easy to be that distinctive from

Labour and the Conservatives. Will he say to any activists worrying

about having to make a pitch, will he have raised their hopes? I don't

think. So I wonder, listening to that, whether on coming back from

holiday Nick Clegg said to his staff, "Do we have to have a

conference? Must I give a speech, because I'm on a hiding to

nothing." It looked like a speech from a man who didn't want to

deliver it. It was an intelligent speech. If you read it, agree or

disagree, it read as an intelligent argument, not very well delivered.

This was the opposite. The delivery was good, but the words in it, my

goodness it was if he was trying to beat the Guinness World Record for

cliches. I admire Nick Clegg, what he's done over the last two years

has been courageous. This isn't his finest hour. Sometimes it is all in

the delivery, but you don't feel it lifted the words off the page in

that sense? If you think back to Paddy Ashdown, as election manager.

When he was leader, he delivered substantial speeches in the 1990s.

He would say big things about the nature of Britain, the nature of

the world, of the economy, of the challenges. He turned up with a

smartphone once to say, "I can read the wall street journal on this" he

said. You might have dis agreed with him but they were big

statements by a big beast. This wasn't a big statement and as a

result Nick to me didn't look like a big beast. Sit because he hasn't

got anything to say or is that he is feeling straightened by the

coalition, that this is a holding conference and a holding speech?

This is his conference, so he could say all sorts of things. It is a

steady as she goes and it will be alright in the long run. We had

keep going, keep going, keep going. Yes, keep calm and carpry on.

has been said repeated lyrics that is all they've got. It felt that

some of the people in that hall might have felt it would be more

fun when they were a protest party. The thing is that it is about

having an opportunity. Conference speeches for me have always been,

this is the big highlight for the leaders of the party, when a lot of

people are watching and listening to them did. He miss his

opportunity there? I think he did. You mentioned Churchill saving the

country and losing the election in 19456789 when Churchill took over

as Prime Minister, Britain was in a terrible state. One of the points

about Churchill was he didn't shrink from telling the bleak truth.

Vivid language but he didn't sugar the pill. That earned him credit.

If things are as bad as they clearly are for the economy and for

the party, if Nick Clegg is going to make that kind of appeal, in an

odd way he needs to be starker and more serious and more down-beat.

The gravitas wasn't there? wasn't there. The language, I

really didn't feel was right. thought it was interesting that he

quite explicitly linkleted the future of his party to the --

linked the future of his feet the country. If the policies come right,

the country will come right and our party will come right. There is

quite a lot of historical examples. Churchill in 1945, and Lloyd George,

he won the First World War and killed the Liberal Party. You could

say after Lehman Brothers Gordon moved Heaven and Earth to help stop

the economy from becoming a '30s- style slump and lost the election.

The electorate are very ungrateful. But in terms of the electorate,

what about red meat? There wasn't much red meat that. Usually is a

vital ingredient of conference speeches. It did feel like middle

managershaving a sales conference somewhere. That is a pretty damning

indictment from you. What could he have done red-meat-wise for the

party? They are going to have to get to that point at some stage,

because at some point they are going to have to stand against the

Conservatives and he will have to say, vote for us to stop it

happening, but at the moment he isn't doing, that but in 2015 he

will have to. Back to Brighton where if former leader of the

Liberal Democrats, a man who had ha had to make a speech like that.

Ming Campbell is there. What bit of the speech has stuck in your mind?

A pleasure. The march to the gunfire, the go back to your

government. We must not been held back by it. Three parties with an

interest in government in the United Kingdom, it seemed to me he

was putting a pretty serious test and equally a pretty serious

ambition. That's the bit that leapt out to me. But it seemed that the

fate of your party is tied one the success, or otherwise, of the

coalition's policies. It doesn't always follow that even if they

were to come right, would get the credit. Let's put that round the

other way. Supposing they had come wrong. Then you're finished.

would somehow be successful. You're toast. The analysis is right, of

course, that he has married together the success and progress

of the party with the success of the commitment but remember, that's

what the coalition agreement was about. It is what we signed up to.

It is why people like myself agreed that this was a coalition, a

necessity which we had to enter into. What he was doing essentially

was expressing frankly something which has been by implication the

position ever since May 2010. did he say nothing about the

potential trade-off which everyone has been talking about between the

coalition's need, particularly the Conservative desire to make further

cuts or further freezes on benefits, and your party's desire for higher

taxes on the wealthy? Why did he not mention that? Well, I was

eavesdropping on Nick Robinson a moment ago when you were talking to

him. He was pointing out the fact that Liberal Democrats, not

surprisingly perhaps, have been going around this conference saying,

we are not going to do this or that. These are not things which are

under consideration in this Parliament. Remember, the coalition

is for this Parliament, its success or otherwise, will be determined by

what happens in this Parliament. One general point if I may. This

wasn't an occasion for the sunny southern uplands. It was an austere

speech for an age of austerity. we've got to be serious in the way

in which we deal with it. Lying behind the speech at every stage

was the question of opportunity, not just opportunity for those who

are less well-off, but opportunity for our party. In a sense you could

argue this was a challenge to the Liberal Democrats. Here is where we

are, here's what we've got to do, When you look at everything that

has been demanded, when you get everything that has been demanded

by the Lib Dems, surely it is fair to say that you are much more

likely to get what you want from a Labour party than a Conservative

Party? I thought one of the interesting part of the speech was

when he pointed out that all talk of what one would do after the next

election really is arrogant. In this sense, the people will decide

what sort of parliament they want to have. If it's a hung parliament

once again, all parties will have an obligation to see what is

necessary to do in the national interests. I don't think anything

is served by anticipating the result of the General Election and

by attempting to present positions in advance of that result. Wouldn't

there be widespread anger if the Liberal Democrats were to lose a

large number of seats at the next General Election, but still held

the balance of power and stayed in government? People would think that

was not fair. Well, the British electoral system is not fair. If we

had a proper proportional system... You lost that argument! Then what

you say would not occur. I can hear some heckling. But if we had a fair

system, of course, coalition is something we have to deal with more

than once every eight years. What we seek to do is to build on what

has gone before, realising that our success or failure will depend on

the circumstances that encouraged and some may even say Forster's

into coalition. That is the austere message that we have heard. It is

one that seemed to be well received. The mood has been, to some extent,

anxious. If Nick Clegg had got up and said, look, we have turned the

corner, all is going to be milk and honey, people like yourselves and

the delegates would have been smiling behind their hands. An

entirely realistic speech. Realism and commitment, not rhetoric.

seem to want to be in a position, and Vince Cable alluded to this,

having been a party that was never in power, you want to see election

results which mean you will always be in power? You would hardly be

surprised about that. Yes, it's about winning an election. It's

very seductive indeed when you consider, as... Well, I joined the

Liberal Party when there were six MPs. I came an MP and there were 18

of us. The notion of government, the kind of influence we have

enjoyed and the kind of responsibility we have had to

undertake seemed entirely remote. As Nick Clegg has quite properly

said, a different party, for different times. If power and

responsibility goes along with that, he will not find any of ejection

from any of the delegates in Brighton. Does it wrangle with you

that the man widely regarded as his heir apparent is three years older

than you or when who you were leader of the party and thought to

be too old to run it? No. Another Time, Another Place, I can assure

you that I do not lie awake at night or even get up in the morning

sticking pins into effigies of Vince Cable. Would you like to?

When Gordon Brown declined to call the election in autumn 2007, which

he undoubtedly should have done, as even he might now admit, it was

clear to me that the issues of age that were crowded around were going

to be even greater in the three years that were going to follow

until the General Election was held in 2010. Nick Clegg was my

preferred successor. He has done something which very few Liberal

Democrat... No Liberal Democrat leaders, and very few Liberal

leaders have done. He's had the opportunity of taking us into

government. That, for the party, whatever difficulties that may have

caused, it has been an enormous achievement. But it could have been

you, if they look more kindly on your age, the way that they seem to

be on Vince Cable's, it could be you. Deputy Prime Minister

Campbell? Well, it is very good of you to keep up this barrage of

support for myself. I don't remember, if I may say so, that you

were among those at the time that was saying, stay on, you are young

enough. Exactly, there we go. Anyway, we lost. And you for

joining us. Have you got a campaign to get Ming

Campbell reinstated? Ardour is worth the crowds and has managed to

grab a couple of people who were in there, listening to Nick Clegg.

Good afternoon. I have not grab them yet. We are going to grab them

on BBC Two and see who would like to talk to us. Are you making notes

about your favourite parts of the speech? No. What were your

favourite bits? A clear message that we are going to differentiate

ourselves from the Tories. I think that is absolutely critical. The

reason we are going to do that is the whole equalities agenda. I

think Mecca is absolutely right. No other party is going to do it.

Labour talk about it, they didn't do it and will not do it again.

That was key. The other thing, he has now hopefully dispelled any

question that he should lead us into the next General Election.

Very quickly, marks out of 10? Scientific. Thank you very much. He

Wells would like to talk to the Daily Politics? These guys look

quite keen. He's going to get a train. What did you reckon about

the speech? A very strong speech. My highlight was that Blue cannot

become green without yellow. That sums up what is happening with the

environment. In the coalition, the Conservatives would not be

delivering an UNEF what is happening in that government. A

very strong green message in government. I thought you might

mention that, you have a green badge. You are not running off for

a train? Not yet. Are you prepared to be shouted at in your

constituency, because you are a proper, grown-up party of

government? I'm on the doorsteps every week. It is nothing new to us

at all. We are not being shouted at. He's talking about not being a

protest party any more and being grown-up. What does that mean in

practice when you are campaigning? It means you can say to people, we

have delivered this, we have raised the income tax that will say you

get more of your money to take home, we have invested in schools, we

have a Pupil Premium. The catch-up fund his regard for people in my

area, Tottenham specifically. They will benefit from that and they are