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" Joining the Liberal Party was a no-brainer for me... And when you are a young man, you don't get a calculator out saying, 'Am I going to get to power?' You get propelled forward by idealism. "
Nick Clegg
Me
You
Saying
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" Most people in this country are very fair-minded; they understand we're in the middle of a very difficult journey of repairing, rescuing, restoring our British economy, and they want us, and they want particularly Liberal Democrats in government, to fight for the fairest possible way of doing that. "
Nick Clegg
Journey
People
Fight
" Liberal Democrats in government will not follow the last Labour government by sounding the retreat on the protection of civil liberties in the United Kingdom. It continues to be essential that our civil liberties are safeguarded, and that the state is not given the powers to snoop on its citizens at will. "
Nick Clegg
Government
Liberal
Democrats
" I didn't become leader to transform the Liberal Democrats into an enlarged form of the Electoral Reform Society. It's not the be all and end all for us. There are other very, very key ambitions in politics, not least social mobility and life chances, that I care about as passionately if not more. "
Nick Clegg
Politics
End
Leader
" My dad's side of the family had lots of artists and musicians. There's an emotional, quite sentimental quality to Slavic culture. It's very open, it loves art, it loves music, it loves literature. It's very warm, it's very up, it's very down. I would celebrate that. "
Nick Clegg
Culture
Music
Quality
" We have got to make sure there is proper independent scrutiny and accountability for people in the press, just as there should be in any other industry where things go wrong. But let's not try and think it is for politicians or governments to tell people what they stick in newspapers. That is deeply illiberal. "
Nick Clegg
Tell
Try
Accountability
" The Conservative Party is not honouring the commitment to Lords reform and, as a result, part of our contract has now been broken. Clearly I cannot permit a situation where Conservative rebels can pick and choose the parts of the contract they like, while Liberal Democrat MPs are bound to the entire agreement. "
Nick Clegg
Result
Broken
Commitment
" I think that the days when newspaper barons could basically click their fingers and governments would snap to attention have gone. "
Nick Clegg
Gone
Days
Attention
" When I became leader, I made very clear I was not going to choose the easy life. I have always taken risks. I don't like comfort-zone politics. "
Nick Clegg
Risks
Easy
Leader
" We need to reach out to small 'l' liberal voters who have a modern outlook on life, who want a party that is hard-headed on the economy - more credible on the economy than Labour - but more socially progressive and fairer than the Conservatives. "
Nick Clegg
Small
Want
Reach
" Although I am a young leader, I actually came to it strangely quite late. I have a different perspective, partly because of my family, partly because of what I did for ten years: negotiating trade deals, working out in Central Asia doing assistance projects. "
Nick Clegg
Doing
Family
I Am
" I don't watch a huge amount of telly. I read a lot. I'm reading at the moment 'Freedom,' by Jonathan Franzen, a great big brick of a book, and I'm loving it. "
Nick Clegg
Great
Moment
Book
" One thing I have frankly decided is that when it comes to political reform we have two conservative parties in British politics. Both the Labour and Conservative parties have constantly and repeatedly failed to honour promises they have made about reforming, cleaning, modernising our clapped-out system. "
Nick Clegg
Political
Promises
Politics
" Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be done without treaty changes. The demand for treaty change is as political as it is legal and I don't think it's going to happen soon. "
Nick Clegg
Change
Changes
Political
" I'm very lucky. I am one of those people who is able to go home, shut the front door and completely focus on the kids. "
Nick Clegg
People
Door
Focus
" Grown-up politicians talk to each other across party lines. Over the last few weeks I have had lengthy conversations with Ed Miliband, David Miliband, with Tony Blair, with Peter Mandelson... talking about Europe, talking about political reform. "
Nick Clegg
Political
Party
Talking
" The Labour Party has become consumed by collective bile towards... the Liberal Democrats. That portrays a rather nasty arrogance. "
Nick Clegg
Democrats
Arrogance
Party
" We can't return to the 19th century, draw up our drawbridges and say, we don't have anything to do with each other, Germany will not work with the Netherlands, the UK will not work with France. That's ludicrous. We are condemned to work with each other. "
Nick Clegg
Work
Anything
Will
" I say this as a young dad seeing children going into primary school: I don't think we should underestimate the formative effect on a child of those first years in primary school. "
Nick Clegg
Think
Child
Children
" I don't want to clip on the armour every morning. I've seen some politicians do this and they get a bit mangled and bitter. I just refuse to do that. I refuse to be angry or bitter or complain, and I remain open. I may sometimes be a bit too open but I'm not going to change that one bit. "
Nick Clegg
Change
Morning
Politicians
" I totally accept that it's a legitimate criticism that when you are involved in the day-to-day scrum of government... that what can get lost is the narrative, the hymn sheet... the song that inspires and lifts people's sights. "
Nick Clegg
Government
Lost
Get
" Liberalism is a really old British tradition and it has a completely different attitude towards the individual and the relationship between the individual and the state than the collectivist response of Labour, and particularly Old Labour, does. "
Nick Clegg
Tradition
Old
Relationship
" We need to teach our kids, because there is such a celebrity culture at the moment, that however rich you are, however famous you are, however glamorous you are, everyone has to live by the same rules. "
Nick Clegg
Rich
Moment
Live
" I am a passionate believer in freedom of speech. I would not support anything which would impinge on aggressive robust freedom of the British press, but when things go wrong and there has been outright illegality, there should be proper accountability. "
Nick Clegg
Support
Accountability
Freedom
" I would be open about the fact that, clearly, politicians should be able to speak to each other. David Cameron doesn't seem to accept this, but if the British people have voted then of course you have to try and provide good stable government. "
Nick Clegg
People
Good
You
" I don't lead a particularly Bohemian existence. The main criterion for me is not to be judgemental of other people so long as what they do is not harmful or offensive to others. "
Nick Clegg
Existence
Long
Me
" With the EU taking in ten more countries and adopting a new Constitution, organisations need more than ever intelligent professional help in engaging with the EU institutions. "
Nick Clegg
Constitution
Help
Need
" My head spins. One moment I'm told I'm too edgy, then people say I'm too angry, then that I show too much passion... make your minds up. "
Nick Clegg
Too Much
People
Moment
" We are keen to stress that a strong euro zone is good for a strong United Kingdom. It's not for us to write the changes that the euro zone needs to embark on. "
Nick Clegg
Good
Changes
Stress
" I am quite strict as a dad but I don't want to be censorious. "
Nick Clegg
I Am
Want
Strict
" One thing I've very quickly learned is that if you wake up every morning worrying about what's in the press, you would go completely and utterly potty. "
Nick Clegg
One Thing
Up
Morning