Nick Clegg on Lib Dem meltdown: ‘I put country before party’

‘Hell, yes, I am proud of this,’ said Nick Clegg in the first of the BBC’s leaders interviews, broadcast at 7.30pm this evening. He’s lucky to get such a slot to list his achievements: the Lib Dems are vying with the Greens for fifth place right now. And he performed pretty well, in my opinion, coming across as decent and reasonable guy, using humour – and even anger, what it was called for.

Evan Davis seemed to be out to provoke him. He started by playing the Lib Dem election broadcast where Clegg piously said he was fed up with broken promises, then promised not to increase increase tuition fees. Yes, said Clegg, guilty as charged. Also, Davis reminded Clegg that he once said his eight-year-old son knew that you can’t cut state spending at a time of economic stagnation – but that’s what his party then did. A lot of people voted Lib Dem (especially Guardian readers) to stop the Tories but ended up with David Cameron –  so he betrayed them.