Nick Clegg: The Liberal Democrats are the continuity choice at the election

The Liberal Democrats sense an opportunity in all this speculation about who the Tories and Labour would do deals with in the event of a hung parliament. They believe that they can position themselves as the responsible party that will keep the country in the centre ground in contrast to the other smaller parties. Today, in his speech to the party’s spring conference, Clegg ruled out joining any coalition that involved the SNP or Ukip. He also tried to use the moment to reinforce voters’ worries about either main party governing on their own. He argued that the Tories would cut needlessly—‘Cows moo. Dogs bark. And Tories cut. It’s in their DNA’—and derided the pledge card that Labour unveiled yesterday as a credit card on which they would rack up more borrowing. Strikingly, and in a move which will unnerve some Lib Dem Ministers, he presented the party as the continuity choice at the next election, accusing the Tories of being the ones veering off the road to recovery.