Clegg’s little bit of political S&M

Nick Clegg is making life horribly difficult for those of us on the right who spent the last few things portraying him as a figure of fun. He is now delivering the best speeches of anyone in the Cabinet, characterised by a quiet sense of urgency and direction. He’s in the business of making the case for cuts. He spoke to a party that spent much of the last decade attacking Labour from the left. For those delegates, it was a little bit of political S&M. It must have hurt – but they liked it.

“We haven’t changed our liberal values,” he said – and then went on justifying Conservative policies in a classic liberal context. And he did it so much better than many Tories have been able to. Take the case for cuts: nothing fair about asking the next generation to pick up the bill. Pupils should choose schools, not schools choosing pupils: Milton Friedman couldn’t have put it better.