“Time for our usual five pints Rob…” bellowed Nick Clegg to his constituency assistant: the deputy Prime Minister was heading to a local Sheffield pub for his 4pm “engagement” and ensured us that he’d be back for our interview by quarter past.
Fifteen minutes is impressively little time for the Liberal Democrat leader to down five beers – but alas, on his return Clegg announced he’d managed just a third of one. Damn, there was I hoping an interview with a drunk politician might prove rather popular.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd48kz9jeb4?rel=0&w=640&h=360]
After exchanging our respective weekend plans, we began a somewhat rare sit-down interview (certainly with senior politicians these days). It was crystal clear from the first minute this would be on-message party spiel from Clegg; with the yellow hymn of “stronger economy, fairer society” making a highly predictable appearance a few moments in.
In fact, there was only one single question throughout the entire interview that the Lib Dem figurehead answered directly: that of whether he makes cups of tea for David Cameron. Putting an end to the much-debated myth that Clegg’s job involves catering for his superior and pleasuring him sexually from time to time; the deputy Prime Minister asserted: “Of course not! I’ll never make a cup of tea for David Cameron…” before scooting off to ask Maggie, his constituency manager, what was next on his Friday to-do list.
“That was the longest 10 minutes I’ve ever seen!” bemoaned Maggie. She was right – we’d taken about triple our allocated time, but all was well as we left a lively Sheffield afternoon to catch our train home.
We’d been fortunate enough to get some real content from the deputy Prime Minister; namely his blasting of the Labour Party’s “deeply unfair” and “wholly inaccurate, cheap blows” towards Vince Cable after it was revealed the taxpayer lost £1 billion in undervalued Royal Mail shares. Clegg also attacked the “pantomime” of Prime Minister’s Questions, branding it “a total farce”.
The Lib Dem leader also refused to confirm that he would allow David Cameron to hold the promised 2017 EU referendum if the two Parties work in coalition together again, despite my pressing of the matter on three occasions: “The Conservatives want to bang on and on and on and on about Europe,” he replied, rather humorously. “I want to bang on and on and on about creating a stronger economy in a fairer society.”
He went on to admit that Nigel Farage has stolen his place as the “anti-politics politician” but totally dismissed UKIP’s credibility: “They promise the moon on a stick, but have absolutely no idea how to deliver it. They promise very simplistic solutions that they would never be able to put into practice.”
Lack of time denied us the opportunity to further quiz him on drugs, power and ambition – it even cut short our slightly disjointed discussion on tuition fees. Yet overall we had seen the real man, put important questions to him, and gained plenty to take into future interviews. Cameron, if you’re reading this, you’re next…