Clegg's Clothes

by Graham Davies

It's very easy for a Party Leader to present bold new ideas when he knows that there is no chance of his party forming the next government. Or any government within his lifetime. That is the simultaneously freeing and frustrating position that Nick Clegg finds himself in as his party conference starts.

The speeches at LibDem conferences are often more interesting than than those you hear from the Big Two conferences. This mainly because the speakers (sometimes including Shadow Cabinet members) feel free to say stuff that does not slavishly agree with everything that the Leadership says. The debates actually involve people debating things.

In the last 24 hours, Clegg has ignited this presentational cauldron by being far more stark in his expression of the necessitiy for huge cuts, even in the NHS, allbeit in it's beauracracy rather than front-line service provision.

But this is not a new way of presenting the issue. With the Tories getting more careful by the minute about the C Word, Clegg is merely saying what Cameron used to say on a regular basis about 18 months ago.

Essentially, he has stolen Cameron's presentational clothes. And they fit him rather well.