Good Week In Glasgow For Nick Clegg
Updated: 4:10pm UK, Wednesday 18 September 2013
By Adam Boulton, Political Editor
The Liberal Democrat's five days in Glasgow have gone Nick Clegg's way.
From keeping Trident to backing the coalition's austerity economic policy, conference votes have backed the leader.
Underlining that they have real power now to actually do things, ministers have had some headline-grabbing announcements on plastic bags and free primary-school meals.
There has been precious little dissent at a meeting where many pundits predicted a few months ago a panicked party would be moving to dump its leader.
Instead, Mr Clegg's rivals have looked less of a threat this week.
For all his leftist rhetoric about hating the Tories, Vince Cable overplayed his hand signalling disagreement on the economy and ended up voting in support of Mr Clegg.
The pugnacious Climate Secretary Ed Davey won the vote for nuclear power but seems to have become a bit of a figure of fun.
Party president Tim Farron has remained studiously loyal throughout.
And the disgraced Chris Huhne, Mr Clegg's one-time rival for the top job, is no longer even a member of the party.
Yet for all this, Clegg and his allies are more confident about an upturn in the UK economy than they are of an improvement in the Lib Dem's dismal opinion poll ratings.
Aides have deliberately drawn attention to an internal poll which shows that only one voter in four now says they would consider voting for the party.
In most current polls, it is getting barely half that with around 10% support.
The slump in popularity dates from when the Lib Dems went into coalition with the Conservatives.
So Clegg was far from triumphalist in his close of conference leader's speech.
Instead he wanted to cheer his activists up by reminding them what the Lib Dems have achieved in government, while trying to persuade the viewing public that it will be worth voting for them next time.
And all this in spite of the criticism which has come the Lib Dem's way.
"Every insult we have had to endure since we entered government, every snipe, every bad headline, every blow to our support - that was all worth it, because we are turning Britain around," he said.
Clegg told his supporters they should be proud of government policies such as the pupil premium, the cap on the cost of social care, investment in railways, parental leave, the move to a £10,000 income tax threshold and free primary school meals.
He also boasted about their negative contribution blocking the Conservatives, he claimed, on ID cards, detention of child immigrants and cuts in foreign aid.
All this, he said, would be threatened if the next general election does not deliver another coalition government.
"The absolute worst thing to do would be to give the keys to Number 10 to a single party government - Labour or the Conservatives ...," He declared.
"In 2015 the clapped out politics of red, blue, blue red threatens everything we have achieved. But back in government - and next time that will mean back in coalition government - the Liberal Democrats can keep the country on the right path."
Mr Clegg made clear the Lib Dems could form a coalition with either of the big two parties but insisted "we're no one's little brother".
He mocked those who speculated he would be more "comfortable" with either Ed Miliband or David Cameron.
And he explicitly rejected the view of the late Roy Jenkins, a founder of the party, of "aligning with a modernising Labour party".
"We have out own values, our own liberal beliefs. We're not trying to get back into government to fold into one of the other parties," he said.
"We want to be there to anchor them to the liberal centre ground, right in the centre, bang in the middle."
As has become commonplace in leader's speeches, Clegg talked about his own family background.
With a half-Russian father, a Dutch mother and a Spanish wife, it is certainly cosmopolitan.
He admitted: "My upbringing was privileged: home counties: private school: Cambridge University."
His main purpose seemed to be to say that he is not exceptional anymore, a parent of three children in ordinary state schools.
And rather than parade an adoring wife across the stage, like his political rivals, he deliberately stepped down into the audience to salute her.
Clegg knows that neither the conference nor his big speech will turn around Lib Dem fortunes overnight.
He consoles himself that there are still nearly two years of government to go until the next election.
He believes that the coalition will survive that long, during which the UK economy will continue recovery.
But before then two big votes will take place in Britain next year: the European Parliamentary and local elections in May and the Scottish independence referendum in September.
On present form those elections look like an uphill battle for the Lib Dems.
But Clegg rightly noted that perhaps the most memorable thing about his conference speech in Glasgow was that it took place with exactly one year to go until Scotland's yes/no vote on breaking up the United Kingdom.
So crucial is the referendum that the Lib Dems have postponed their conference next year, which would have taken place the same week, and will now follow the Labour and Tory gatherings.
Clegg - and earlier the Scottish Secretary Michael Moore - argued fiercely for No to independence.
The Lib Dems have always favoured devolution and federalism but they believe it should be possible to be English or Scottish and British.
If Scotland votes Yes to independence, Clegg knows only too well that all bets will be off about the coalition's alleged achievements and for the 2015 General Election.
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