Nick Clegg Election 2017

Hi. Thanks everyone for joining us here today. For Nick Clegg 's views

on the challenges and copper mines is ahead, as Britain prepares to

negotiate its departure from the European Union. Before Nick joins

us, to make use of the opportunity that you are all here, I thought I

would share a few of my own concerns regarding this. Regarding the tech

industry. First I wanted to share some insight about the tech

industry, it has been growing very fast, in fact twice the rate of the

of jobs, not just here in London but of jobs, not just here in London but

across the UK, which I know is important and really great. So I

think this has been in part thanks to the really open relationship we

have had with the rest of the world. Ideas do not stop at Borders. Many

of the tech businesses that were founded here were based on ideas

that were born elsewhere. I think it is important that we keep our open

relationship both with the rest of the world as well as with Europe.

Secondly, our industry has been struggling with a massive skill

shortage. I know it has been covered in newspapers, and this is not just

because there are not enough skills in the economy, but also because we

have had, sorry. I'm struggling. This is because, despite the fact we

have had easy access to all the top talent that has been available from

Europe, I know that we will probably be granted some reprimands to

recruit from Europe and the rest of the world but despite the red tape

that will bring to the businesses we have, I think we are also diluting

really positive recruitment messages we once had. Join us, the open,

forward-looking, and a positive country. The country I was really

excited to join some 18 years ago. So, I'm sure that Nick has some

views on this as well. I hope he has some solutions and ideas on how we

can overcome this. And bring out the message that we are open, economy,

and a fantastic country. To do that, I hereby handover to Nick Clegg.

Please give a warm welcome to Nick Clegg.

Thank you Wendy, very much. Thank you to you and your whole team for

allowing us to hold this event here today. Thank you all for making your

way through the torrential rain to this venue here this morning. The

focus of public discussion since the weekend has been quite rightly on

how we should go about strengthening our resilience against the hateful

terrorist death cult which led to the tragic loss of life in

Manchester and London. Today however, I would like to turn

attention back to the issues Theresa May claimed were the reason for

holding the election and the first place. Brexit. The Prime Minister

has insisted that Brexit is, in her words, the one fundamental defining

issue of the campaign. She was right to say those words. Because Brexit

touches on every aspect of our lives. The way our farmers farm, our

fishermen fish, to the increasingly sophisticated EU measures, helping

to apprehend would-be criminals across the continent. The problem

is, judging by the campaign so far, you would never have guessed that

Brexit was important at all. For the last six weeks, both the

Conservatives and the Labour Party have colluded to evade all

meaningful scrutiny of their Brexit plans, if indeed they have any. All

we hear from Theresa May R boasts of her supposed strength and stability,

and a wholly spurious claim that every vote for heart will somehow

strengthen her negotiating hand in the Brexit talks. All we hear from

Jeremy Corbyn is a shopping list of giveaways, accompanied by back of

the envelope costings. It's a promise of everything to everyone,

when no one is expected to pay for anything. Both of them are indulging

in the politics of evasion and fantasy. It would all be laughably

absurd if it wasn't now so desperately serious. Because neither

the Conservatives nor Labour are being straight with the voters about

the crisis that is coming. We are no closer today than we were a month

ago to knowing what Mrs May or Mr Corbyn really believe Britain will

look like after Brexit. Get the brutal truth is that both of them

have already made a fateful choices about Britain's future, while

refusing to explain their choices to the British people. Strip away the

contrasts in tone and differences in language, and a striking reality

emerges. Both the Conservative and Labour positions on Brexit are now

more or less identical. Paul Britain out of the customs union and the

single market. Abruptly bring an end to freedom of movement. Denied the

people any chance to decide on the final view. They are in total

agreement. This identikit approach to Brexit is hardly unexpected,

after all, Labour voted with unseemly haste to vote to trigger

Article 50 and start the clock counting towards Theresa May's hard

Brexit. Like the Conservatives, they also failed to vote to guarantee the

rights of EU citizens when they had the chance in Parliament. So, in an

election where we were told that there was a clear choice about to

deeply contrasting visions, about the context between Labour and Tory

leaders with nothing in common, the truth is that there has been a pack

of silence on Brexit between Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. It is one of

the most cynical acts of political collusion between the two larger

parties in a generation. And it has made a mockery of Theresa May's

insistence that this is a general election about Brexit. Instead, with

no attempt to discuss the detail and no effort to explain her approach,

Theresa May resorts the nation to believe in Brexit. Fabricates an EU

plot to punish Britain, and blithely insists that they vote for her will

bring about a better deal. Well, if meaningless sloganeering and faintly

paranoid anti-EU outbursts are all it takes to secure a good Brexit

deal, then Theresa May will do Britain proud. But by choosing the

hardest of all Brexit, by refusing to prepare the British public for

the necessary compromises that lie ahead, and by posturing as Europe's

enemy, rather than the friend we so clearly are and should be, Theresa

May has set our country on the most damaging course imaginable. Our

country cannot thrive without a strong economy. It is quite clear

that we can't have a strong economy and an extreme Brexit. Just look at

the evidence, even if Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn refused to. The

evidence that Britain should brace itself for a painful Brexit slump is

accumulating by the day. Voters are already aware that the cost free

Brexit they were promised is off the table. Remember the ?350 million a

week for the NHS? The VAT cuts, the instant solution to immigration?

Theresa May would rather you did not. Instead, the grip of a growing

Brexit squeeze on peoples income and public services tightens the day.

Last week, we learned the grim news that while the UK was the

fastest-growing economy in the G-7 in 2016, in the first quarter of

this year, we are now the joint slowest. With Italy. GDP growth,

0.7% at the end of last year, has slowed to 0.2% in the opening

quarter of 2017. The economy is nearing a standstill. Since June

2015, sterling has suffered a dramatic 20% fall against the euro,

and a 19% fall against the dollar. I direct consequence of the

uncertainty in the run-up to the referendum, the result of the vote,

and the subsequent failure of this government to commit to staying in

the single market. Inflation which registered at zero at the time of

the referendum today stands at 2.7%, the highest level since September

2013, and is predicted to go higher. With average earnings growth failure

to keep up the prices, consumers are already feeling the Brexit squeeze.

Price-wise, energy bills, petrol, and clothes. It's enough to make

anyone need a fortifying glass of wine. Last week, it was reported

that the average bottle of a price of wine is at its highest price ever

as well. As thousands of families prepare for their summer holidays

abroad, the devaluation of the pound will hit them in the pocket too.

Everything paid for in euros, everything paid for in dollars, and

accommodation -- from accommodation to ice cream, will be more

expensive. The economic malaise goes further. House prices have fallen

for the third month in a row, the first time that has happened since

the height of the financial crisis in 2009. Inequality is on the rise

once again, as a combination of weak growth and Conservative cuts to

working age benefits starts to bite. The resolution foundation forecasts

that the wealthiest households will be ?2100 a year better off by 2021,

but the middle third of households by income will see their money

stagnate, and the bottom third will lose 20% of their income or ?1200 a

year. This, I should add, stands in stark contrast to the distribution

record of the Coalition government, where, because of Lib Dem measures

on taxation and I'll veto on gratuitously aggressive conservative

welfare measures, inequality remained broadly stable.

As people begin to feel the Brexit squeeze they'll notice the Public

Services are another victim of Theresa May's extreme Brexit. Last

November, the office of budget responsibility we vealed a Brexit

black hole in the public finances. -- revealed. The Chancellor's had to

borrow an extra ?59 billion to plug the gap left by slower growth and

lower immigration in the wake of the referendum vote. That's ?15 billion

a year that could be used to rescue our ailing NHS or pay for more

teachers. Something will have to give. Be it further cuts or rising

taxes, to give our Public Services the funding they so desperately

need, something which the Conservatives have refused to rule

out. And remember, this is all before Brexit actually happens. We

are merely feeling the first shock waves of what is to come. So if

people up and down the country are prepared to vote on Thursday, they

should be made aware that just around the corner is a Brexit slump

which will affect each and every one of us. Theresa May's slavishly loyal

foot soldiers will tell you that what lies ahead is an unpatriotic

case of saboteurs. These aren't predictions. They can't forecast,

they are simply the cold facts of Britain's economic reality today. In

May last year, an official Treasury forecast calculated that we'd suffer

a ?36 billion annual loss to the public finances after 15 years, even

if we manage to strike a post-Brexit bilateral trade deal of the type the

Conservatives favour. No deal meaning that we'll fall back on

World Trade Organisation rules, would, according to that same

Treasury analysis mean a loss of ?45 billion a year, thanks to reductions

in trade and the impact on growth and tax revenues. To be clear, I'm

not making a judgment here about the supposed opportunities created by

Brexit and whether they'll materialise. Those were priced into

the Treasury calculations even in the best case scenario a good trade

deal still leaves us far, far worse off than we are today. ?45 billion

is more than the entire schools budget for England. To plug a gap

like that in public finances we'd need to raise the basic rate of

income tax by 10p in the pound or the make cuts to Public Services and

the salaries of those who work for them on an unimaginable scale. This

is what Theresa May means when she casually threatens to walk away from

the negotiating table. No deal isn't a cuddly alternative to a poor deal.

It's far worse. It's a disaster for Britain. The Treasury figures are

also an indictment of the central objection of Theresa May's

negotiating strategy to walk away from Margaret Thatcher's single

market. This decision alone carries, according to the same Treasury

calculations, a long-term price tag of ?16 billion a year. For that

money, you could give every hospital in the UK a ?12 million cash

injection or provide the average school with an extra ?500,000. I

challenge David Davis on the official Treasury numbers on

Question Time last week. He refused. David Davis himself said the

Government hasn't commissioned any fresh analysis of the risks. Either

they remain the official Government calculations in which case they are

a stark warning as to how much Public Services will suffer, or the

Government no longer believes the figures to be accurate, in which

case Theresa May's failure to undertake her own analysis of the

cost of Brexit is the height of irresponsibility. To her, it seems,

details don't matter. The compromises are of no concern. The

damage, the inevitable damage, a mere distraction. All we must do is

blindly trust her to negotiate on our behalf. After a campaign that's

been more weak than strong, and more clumsy than stable, Theresa May's

brittle performance, notably the embarrassing U-turn on the dementia

tax and the bizarre accusation of a plot to influence the election in

Brussels, has instead left many people questioning whether she is

indeed a suitable candidate to lead Britain in the toughest, most

complex negotiations it's ever faced. Across the capital, neigh's

performance over the last six weeks would not have gone unnoticed.

Negotiating Brexit is going to be a tightrope act. It requires subtlety,

creativity and the ability to win friends, above all it requires sure

footedness to keep on top of dozens of simultaneous interlocking

negotiations. Instead, we are being asked to elect a leader who is

unsteady in the limelight, incapable of straight talking and prone to

chaotic U-turns. As for Jeremy Corbyn, he continues with his

mission to fool voters into believing we can live in a world of

free stuff as our economy sinks. And on Brexit. Nothing. Merely the

startlingly perceptive observation that no deal will be bad for the

country and a vague promise that it would bring a different style to the

negotiations. The country faces up to the incredibly complex

challenges, we face so much more from the man and woman who leads us

into the talks. Instead, only a few days before polling day, the Brexit

unknowns just continue to mount up. Take the National Health Service. It

relies on thousands of highly skilled nurses and doctors from

non-EU countries who come here to help all of us. Yet they tell us

they no longer feel welcome and are considering returning home. To

replace the Portuguese midwives and Italian nurses, would cost millions

of pounds. Have we heard a Brexit plan for the NHS from the

Conservatives or from Labour? Not a word. What will immigration look

like after Brexit? Theresa May still claims to her ill logical pledge to

drive net immigration down to the tens of thousands. But what will it

mean for our economy when the German engineers, Danish architects,

Lithuanian fruit-pickers and Hungarian truck strives two home?

Without a credible plan to replace them, what effect will this have on

our economy? Not a clue. Theresa May's vowed to pull Britain out of

the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, a decision which

means we would no longer have access to vital EU-wide databases of

criminal activity. Just last year, when Theresa May made perfectly

rational arguments against leaving Europe, she warned that being in the

UK makes us more secure from crying and terrorism. She herself as now

exacerbated that risk by refusing to abide by the rulings of the ECJ. So

wrsh the contingency plans when the police forces find themselves unable

to check the databases of 28 EU countries at the touch of a button?

If only she'd told us, maybe we could judge for ourselvesment how is

the Government preparing for the moment when products will for the

first time since the 1970s have to go through customs checks. When

every joint of meat and car seat has to be accompanied by forms to show

they comply with regulations. What about reassurances? What can the

Government offer? Again - nothing. Instead, business leaders are

invited into Whitehall to meet ministers who sit there and just

pallet the Prime Minister's empty slogans back to them. I remember

that David Cameron, Theresa May's predecessor and a man I worked

closely with for five years, was often dismissed as an essay crisis

Prime Minister, a man who preferred to win it and Leigh things until the

last minute. Whether that was fair or not, most of the time, the essays

emerged in the end. Even a short essay by Theresa May on how she

intendsth intends to meet the challenges of Brexit would be a

massive step forward. Not only has she failed to produce the Government

equivalent of an essay, she's barely produced a coherent paragraph in one

whole year. No wonder David Davis, now boasts that over 12 months he's

produced a sum total of 100 pages of notes about Brexit. At that rate,

the Brexit negotiations are undertaking which will involve

hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of documents will barely

get to first base by the middle of this century. For all these reasons,

I issue this stark warning today. As people up and down the country

prepare to vote on Thursday, they should be aware they'll soon be the

victims of an act of national self-harm imposed on us by Theresa

May and Jeremy Corbyn which will affect each and every one of us.

Whatever happens in the relative fortunes of the Conservative and

Labour Parties this Thursday, the country will be trapped on a path

which if left unchallenged will remorsefully lead us to a Britain of

lower trade, less prosperity, rising prices, a weakened NHS and

underlying security. It is a bleak prospect and a grim future. It is

the future Theresa May's chosen for us by setting us on the riskiest

possible path to Brexit, a path which Jeremy Corbyn shamefully has

now fully endorsed. But we can choose the different future because

this is not a future I want for this great country. It is not a future I

want for my own children. It's not a future that the many young people in

this country voted for last June. So while Britain may stand on the brink

of a self-destructive Brexit, we can stop it happening. There is a way to

change course. There is a way to steer us away from the rocks which

can already be seen on the mere horizon. What this country needs are

Members of Parliament who're prepared to be open about voters

about the risk of compromises ahead. Members of Parliament who are

prepared to hold this Government to account as it drives us towards this

hard Brexit. Members of Parliament who'll fight every step of the way

to keep Britain in the single market and the customs union. And, at the

end of the process, Members of Parliament who'll offer you a chance

to vote on the final deal. I have no intention of giving up and neither

do the Liberal Democrats, because only the Liberal Democrats will

provide the opposition to Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn that this

country so desperately needs. This election really is about Brexit.

Just don't let it be the Brexit of Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn. There

are three days left to stop the Brexit crisis. Vote for a brighter

future for Britain, vote for the Liberal Democrats on June 8th. Thank

you very much for listening. APPLAUSE.

Thank you very much. Time for some questions and comments.

Rob Perry for the independence, assuming it is David Davis

negotiating in two weeks' time and given the tea parties are very

different stance, how soon do you expect the talks to collapse, the

thing that is likely by summer, two weeks, two days? I can't put a time

frame on it but I have to confess in the immediate aftermath of the

referendum I didn't really, it didn't really crossed my mind that

there might be a collapse in the talks will because it is such an

extraordinarily destructive thing to do not just for ourselves before the

rest of Europe. It is infinitely dispiriting that a year later the

chance of a collapsing are much higher than I ever could have

possibly imagined. That has only been confirmed, a leader, a proper

leader of a country would use this election campaign is not just to

secure a mandate on Thursday to get a majority but also to explain and

prepare the British public for the huge compromise, the unpopular

compromises that are inevitable if you want to deal. And yet Theresa

May has made no attempt whatsoever to prepare people for what is to

come and that is a spectacular failure of leadership, she is

digestive close to 4 million Ukip voters, she does what the editor of

the Daily Mail tells her to these days as far as I can tell, she is in

the hands of some pretty zany zealots whose best interest is in

the press and I don't see what flexibility she has got. Not just

little compromises that they compromises why should the 20 other

Member states jump through the hoops, ... What is the most likely

issue? And accumulation of issues. The fundamental contradictions of

Theresa May's making. You cannot say we won't abide by European rules or

we will have effortless access to your databases. We want to continue

to participate in various unspecified EU cooperation

programmes that we don't want to pay anything for the tab when we leave,

he cannot do these things. Any one of these could be a catalyst for

collapse but it is the failure to entertain any compromise of

flexibility on behalf of Theresa May and the longer the general election

goes on, far from being a leader who sees the big picture, she has become

an narrow minded leader who is playing for the shorts, small-time

tactical advantages from one day to the next which will not get us the

deal and the rest of the EU need. The Lib Dems have focused on

Brexit... INAUDIBLE

The Lib Dems have focused this campaign on Brexit, some say it has

almost been a single issue campaign and security is dominating again in

the last 48 hours, how worried are you, you alluded to it that the Lib

Dems message is getting through? That is to judge on Thursday. We

didn't choose the timing of the election, we didn't choose to

declare that this election was all about Brexit, that was Theresa May,

we responded to her challenge about Brexit so the irony is, we were told

by their own Brexit is the be all and end all of the election and then

they run for the hills, we are the only ones trying to level with the

British people and by the way those choices directly affect our ability

to keep ourselves so. For five year long years in government and I was

receiving daily briefings, our ability to monitor people coming

into Europe from conflicts in Libya, Syria and elsewhere and then to

check their movements across the European union is essential to keep

this from -- keep us safe from further attacks. There is a monopoly

of measures from the Schengen information service, probably one of

the most sophisticated databases of its kind, to Euro poll run by a

Brit, all of these measures are essential to our safety and yet we

have had a six-week long campaign and the Prime Minister of this

country still can't explain to you how she would keep these measures in

place and she patronises you and all of us with these platitudes are so

of course we will find a deal. It is legally impossible for 27 other

countries to share data on a would-be criminals and terrorists

with us if we're not prepared to continue to abide by the data

protection rules of those databases. It is not a question of people want

to, of course everybody wants to cooperate, she is making what

everybody wants a legal impossibility and I find it amazing

that no politician is a media have extracted a meaningful response in

detail from the Prime Minister to such an important challenge to our

security and future. CROWD CLAPPING

Yes it was the Prime Minister who called the election but it was the

Lib Dems decision to focus on Brexit, my question is are you

concerned that the campaign has been to narrow? What I tried to

explain... When the two parties Lochore 's and in an unspoken way to

do so in an active collusion whether you choose not to speak about

Brexit, it is like a double deceit, they don't want to talk about Brexit

and they don't want to talk about the economy, Jeremy Corbyn and

Theresa May here in my view are less interested and less knowledgeable

about the economy than any other to leading members of the labour and

Conservative Party leading memory. Of course one that happens it is

difficult further participation to intrude when they have this mutually

reinforcing interest not to talk about Brexit but it is a double

conceits, they don't want to talk about Brexit and livelihoods so of

course it is difficult, does it mean it is wrong? Of course not, someone

surely needs to raise the alarm to the British people about what will

affect them and their families in the next few years. It might be a

naive question but why is it Brexit being dealt with by Partizan, why is

it that when everybody went to the polls about Brexit they thought it

was cross-party, it seemed like it didn't matter which party and now

Brexit is happening, why is it Theresa May who's going to be doing

it, not the finest minds of all the parties because this is a huge thing

for the country and why aren't all the best minds in the best

spokespeople are going to Brexit? Because of the political choice

being made, Theresa May could have reached out to the 40% of people who

voted remain, she could discern which would have been an accurate

reflection and description, I will deliver Brexit, I'm duty-bound to do

so, she might have said Brexit means Brexit then she could have them said

that she was mindful that it is due to as the incumbent number ten, not

only to govern for the Labour to go on for tomorrow, particularly to

govern the younger generations, over 70% of whom voted the different

future. In keeping with that duty with the long-term future I will

takes out of the European Union but doing it in the least economically

destructive way possible and I want to work with other parties and find

a way to return the closest possible participation even as we leave the

political institutions. I probably would have grumbled and people are

the other extreme of grumbled but she would have captured roughly what

the centre ground of which is public opinion was. She instead transformed

the Conservative Party in the Ukip light party and labour followed in

the Woakes alert the dramatic shift to what is an extreme

interpretation. It is absurd by the way, imagine if remain had won last

year and people like the on the 24th of June so right we have one, we are

going to join the euro next Tuesday, we're going to sign up to the

European army and drawing showing in next Thursday and anyone who has any

problems, how dare you. You saboteurs. You and patriotic

traitors. It is extraordinary that we have allowed... Given the post

Brexit environment sees Britain needing new trade deals, what

appetite do you think there will be from the leadership of the country

to sort of sit down publicly allies given what we've seen in the last 24

hours were Donald Trump, Theresa May rarely criticising him for his

criticism of Siddique Khan and today Boris Johnson was saying the state

visit will go ahead as planned. There were subservient in Theresa

May's response, but I think one shouldn't underestimate quite how

quick the devolution in Britain's status has been in the eyes of other

world leaders. Over the last two or three weeks, two of the most

powerful men came to visit Europe, the Prime Minister of India and the

president of China, they didn't come to the United Kingdom and didn't

seek one-to-one meetings with Teresa may, Angela Merkel and the Prime

Minister said they would accelerate the talks to a new India EU trade

agreements guess what, blocked by Britain in the past, by Theresa May

because of her objections to the greater access to Europe's labour

market which the Indians wants understandably. You have a world out

there which sees the reality is an terms to the way frankly

increasingly deluded reality that he get from Boris Johnson and Theresa

May, the rest of the world is apparently chewing up according to

them to do our bedding and queueing up to give us these effortless trade

agreement only give them nothing they give us everything. Hiding the

reality that people like Theresa May these trade deals with superpowers

like India and then these people come to Europe, it would have been

unthinkable a few years ago that the leaders of India and China would

come to the European union and wouldn't even bother to seek a

meeting will make a trip to London and these people and the

Conservative Party can't send us and say they are putting Britain first.

They are rapidly shoving the United Kingdom to the back of the queue and

it makes me immensely angry because it is a disservice to our children

and grandchildren. Just to touch on some points made

about security, that there have been a lot of criticism about Theresa May

that the cuts that she made to policing, especially as Home

Secretary, you are Deputy Prime Minister Betsy actually backed so

how much responsibility do you take for the reduction of police numbers

and how has that affected their ability now? You are right,... In

the immediate aftermath of the firestorm that we were trying out

from 2010-15 and since then the Conservatives have continued with

further cuts to police numbers, as Tim Farron has explained we now have

a plan to the numbers back into policing, in terms of where you put

that, and how do you distribute that popped to the different facets? It

is now widely understood that if you want to keep their sector there are

many different facets of this of course coming European security,

military interventions, intelligence gathering is the press United

Kingdom are crucially the community policing which is part, only part of

important part of the ability to create that network of

relationships, the fabric with community leaders, with people and

the communities where we know, not always of course but where we know

the young man whose minds and hearts are poisoned by this hateful

ideology aside, that is clearly an important component and I think it

is now beyond arguing that we need to have a good look as a country

that's how we replenish the resources for that style.

But in hindsight, were those cuts you presided over a mistake? I'm not

going -- pretend I pre can redo history. I intervened personally to

make sure the savings were not imposed on the schools budget which

are now being imposed with some very profound consequences by the

Conservative plans. We decided to keep the NHS funding stable. Those

were understandable choices at the time. There was a stark difference

between our approach and the Conservatives after 2015. They have

been in power for the last two years and our plans going forward now are

significantly different. REPORTER: Hi, Mr Clegg. The speech

you gave was I think fair to say quite statistic heavy. One big

criticism of the Remain campaign from people within the campaign,

whether it's too statistics based and that it didn't offer any

arguments to stay in the EU that appealed to people's feelings and

anxieties across the country, do you think the pitch you gave is guilty

of the same thing and also the Lib Dems pitch across the campaign? No.

I don't buy the idea that we should try and emulate Donald Trump. Ors

were still Michael Gove. And ignore all experts and statistics and

facts. You know, sometimes it's important to spell out the reality

and we have an election campaign. Two leaders, Jeremy Corbyn and

Theresa May, who are wholly uninterested in talking about the

reality of Brexit, who have no idea what to do about Brexit and are

simply not levelling with the British people about the reality of

the squeeze on their living standards and on Public Services. I

think to try and chase populism by giving up on reason and fact would

be a huge mistake. But beyond that, I can't think of a more emotional

pitch than saying that we owe it to younger generations to keep them

secure, to give them, toe bequeath to them a strong economy,

particularly when, and which other that huh democracy's ever done this?

We are taking a radical choice against the explicit wishes of those

who inhabit the future - the young. I can't think of anything more

emotional than trying to do the right thing. It's something we weave

together with my known facts about GDP as well.

APPLAUSE. You at the back?

REPORTER: Thank you, Mr Clegg. You talked about Corbyn. May I ask you

to say a bit more about Corbyn. Could you say, since they are being

so quiet on the subject, could you fill in the gap here - could you say

how you think Corbyn's Brexit would be different from May's Brexit? And

since you want us to vote for you, could you say how your Brexit would

be different from both Corbyn's and May's? On the latter, we think - by

the way, in keeping with proposals put forward by John Redwood and

David Davis in the past, we think there should be a fully democratic

process. We have voted to leave. There was no description about how

we are leavingor what it means for our every day life. The moment we to

know that, we believe it's essential the British people have been given a

say because they need to be able to compare like with like, the reality

of staying with the reality of leaving. The Brexit campaign's so

artfully, if cynically withheld from the British people any description

of what leaving meant in practice. This's probably the biggest

difference and, as you know, we believe it's perfectly possible

because it's been done before on numerous occasions to be outside the

European Union. But much more closely associated with and

participating if its oreconomic arrangements. It's very clear to

understand that what Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn are saying by ruling

out our participation in the single market and ruling out our continued

present membership of the customs union. That'll put the UK at a

greater distance economically speaking from the largest economic

hintering land in countries like Switzerland, Norwayway, Iceland,

Turkey. That choice has already been made. We could have chosen, as I

described earlier, to say no, we are going to try and remain closely

associated economically even if we lose our place at the sort of high

table of political institutions of the EU. Those are the big

differences. As for Corbyn. Look, I don't know, you will need to ask

him, I don't get the impression he ever particularly believed in

Britain's membership of the EU in the first place. He was so

lamentably lukewarm in the referendum, to the point of

invizibility. He's now displaying, as far as I can make out, absolutely

no understanding, he's had a year as well, no understanding about what

happens next. I read an interview coming down from Sheffield on the

train this morning, just this morning he was saying, we want to

negotiate to get tariff-free access. Who is not going to negotiate for

tariff free access. It's a meaningless thing to say. He doesn't

seem to understand that the tariffs are not really the issue at all.

Tariffs are reduced worldwide and I think they can be relatively

straightforwardly eliminated. That's not the issue. The single market is

to do with the replacement of basically 28 bits of red tape with

one rule book which everybody adheres to so you don't have to fill

in all the endless paperwork. We have a Prime Minister who seems to

show no interest at all in the show no interest at all in the

economy and we have a Leader of the Opposition who seems to have

absolutely no understanding of the club which we are leaving from. Let

alone any insight into how you then negotiate that departure. That

really worries me. We are a big, great country. We were a principal

architect of European integration in so many respects. We played a

massive role in the affairs of the world for generations and I just

think we are sort of drifting towards either a collapse in the

talks, certainly a very destructive outcome of those talks and

increasing international irrelevance made up through the endless robotic

sycophancy towards the White House. Is that really what we want? Why are

we coming towards the end of a six-week election campaign where

none of this has been discussed - none. And Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa

May haven't been put under pressure to answer any of these questions. Is

that enough? APPLAUSE.

The gentleman here? I'll give short errants.

REPORTER: Good morning. You have spoken at length criticising both

Mrs May and Mr Corbyn's stances on Brexit, but say on Friday morning we

have a minority Labour Government which is not outside the realms of

possibility, how would you like to see Lib Dem MPs going forward? Would

you support them? Would you want to see them succeed in key votes on the

Queen's Speech, giving the alternative of a hard Brexit which

you oppose? Well, as Tim Farron's been very admirably clear on, the

Liberal Democrats are not going to enter into Nicolicses, pacts or

deals. Look, every political prediction I've ever been made has

usually been wrong so there is no possibility of the main party

returning more MPs than Conservatives, none at all. There is

been excitement about the polls. It's the tightening of the polls

that is not a resurgence of the Labour Party in Scotland which is a

British landscape. I don't see how British landscape. I don't see how

they could possibly win. It's all froth and nonsense. The fundamental

facts of British politics which mean that it's almost a foregone

conclusion that the Conservatives will win a majority are still in

place. The Labour Party's been completely destroyed in Scotland and

there is no sign at all that they will get off the canvas. So the only

alternative is the belief that Jeremy Corbyn can beat the

Conservatives in England. And in the south coast and the Home Counties.

That is just not going to happen. We can play this what if game, but I

really think this, even by my landable standards in guessing and

punditry, it's a scenario not worth spending time on.

REPORTER: Good morning. Thank you for your brilliant speech which I

didn't think was full of statistics a all, but full of marvellously

telling phrases. My question is this. A lot of people think the Lib

Dems aren't making much of an impact because they've accepted Brexit is

going to happen. Conversely, there is a growing relief. There could be

a huge reaction against Brexit and a fundamental change of mind. What do

you think are the prospects of that happening? Of what, of people...

(Inaudible) Well, it's our position that the people should be put in

charge of the decision of whether the final deal is good enough for

us, it shouldn't be left to the people of the upper classes or still

just the cabal of folk in Number Ten. I find it difficult to predict.

It's tremendously important that those who promised an economic

anywhere Varna, who promised an array of new trade agreements around

the world which would effortlessly replace the trade that we are going

to lose in our own hemisphere, who promised that living standards would

go up, who promised that this would all be done and dusted in two years,

who promised that there would be more money for the NHS, who promised

there would be Brexit-induced tax cuts, who promised that people's

concerns for immigration would be allayed overnight. It's tremendously

important that they're held to account. It's one of the many

reasons I wished Boris Johnson or Michael Gove became Prime Minister

and not Theresa May because they would have had to at least have been

held to account for what they said to the British people. I can't

predict what the British people are going to say and do. As a practising

politician what we can do as a party of opposition is hold the powerful

to account and hold them to these utopian promises they made to the

British people and tone to show the British people the huge gap, the

chasm that will open up between what they'll promise, the utopian future

and the much more different reality that will soon engulf this country.

Maybe one more? The lady at the front?

REPORTER: Thank you. I'm wondering how you would deal with Europeans,

how do you think they're managing Brexit at the moment in and the

sense of betrayal and lack of solidarity? What would be your style

of negotiation to restore a sense of trust and solidarity with them?

Secondly the idea of EU association membership for people who want to

retain a connection to the EU, do you think that's a realistic

possibility? On the latter, this is an idea championed by the European

Parliament's chief man on Brexit. I discussed it with him. He hasn't yet

worked it out in detail, it's self-evidently a legally fraught

concept. The one that he wants to persist with. He should be given

every encouragement and support to do that. The idea of trying to offer

people some way of retaining a more meaningful connection with the

European Union is something which is very attractive to many people. He

hasn't worked out the detail but he should be given every support in

doing so. How would you do about it? doing so. How would you do about it?

I would just remain kind of calmer than all that kind of

hyperventilating kind of stuff that you get from the Conservatives. Also

just kind of straightforward about it. Theresa May could say to the

leaders, look, I didn't want this. I didn't want this but I'm duty bound

deliver it in a way which minimises deliver it in a way which minimises

the effect on all of us. If you are sitting in Paris or Berlin, they

have so much to deal with. Their own economic problems. The Mediterranean

refugee crisis. A belligerent Turkey, an aggressive Russia.

I wish there was more modestly sometimes, certainly in the way to

understand other countries have other things to get on with, they

don't spend their waking hour thinking about Brexit, they didn't

want it. But of course they feel rejected, they are utterly

perplexed, they are now accused of some unspecified plot. It is loopy.

We have a British Prime Minister accusing people of Brussels of a

plot, if it was it was a really rubbish plots for a start and

secondly the idea that a briefing to a German newspaper about a dinner is

the way you go to undermine British democracy is not the way, having a

sense of perspective, it is all being replaced by this shrill

aggressive language directed at them and the thing they say to them as we

didn't pick this fights. We took this decision and it is now up to us

to explain to them how on earth who will pick through the mess, although

here are semi-paranoid accusations of plot and abuse. That is not a

smart way getting 20 other sovereign governments who have pride and

vanity and their own needs of getting people to see your point of

view. And with that understand thank you.

APPLAUSE