Nick Clegg gave his monthly press conference today. It might kindly be described as ‘wide-ranging’, which is often code in journalese for ‘not offering very much’. But the Deputy Prime Minister did offer a few nuggets which are worth exploring.
The first is that he was very keen to put his name on the list of figures at the top of the Coalition trumpeting the improved economic circumstances. ‘I am not going to use that phrase,’ he said, when asked whether he could see ‘green shoots’ in the economy. ‘I’m happy to use any other euphemism: the clouds are lifting… the sinews of the British economy are starting to strengthen.’ A victory for muscular liberalism, clearly.
But in his opening remarks, the Deputy Prime Minister also said that ‘we need to have a debate as we move forward: what kind of economy we need to see’ emerging in the future.
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