Clegg urges his party to face reality

The cultural change Nick Clegg is trying to bring to the Liberal Democrats was summed up by one exchange during his Q&A with party delegates. One delegate, a member of the Federal Policy Committee, got up and said how conference had “sent the government a message” with its decision to amend the coalition’s health reform plans. To which a visibly exasperated Clegg replied, “you’re part of the government.”
 
Clegg was uncompromising in his message that the party has to accept the realities of coalition government. After he had dismissed a series of questions about whether he was too close to Cameron, Clegg said — only half-jokingly — to the hall “who else would like some of that?”
 
The questions tended to be on Lib Dem staples: constitutional reform, tuition fees, local government and the like. On Lords reform, Clegg wouldn’t commit to the coalition delivering either a fully elected Lords or removing the bishops from it.
 
But, perhaps, the biggest round of applause came when Clegg said of Labour-run Manchester Council’s cuts that  “I can’t think of anything  more disgraceful” than cutting to score political points. The popularity of the line in the hall was another sign of just how much the Lib Dems and Labour have come to loathe each other in the past 10 months.