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If Nick Clegg is nervous about his first party conference as Liberal Democrat leader this weekend in Liverpool, then he is definitely not showing it. Councillors and party members from across the country can expect the man, who has become the Liberal Democrats' third leader in two years, to be in bullish mood, setting the agenda not just for his own party, but also for Labour and the Conservatives as well. ‘My view is we are entering a phase of British politics where we will either look back in 10 years and say we took the opportunity to revamp politics, or say we bottled it,' he comments, speaking to The MJ in his Westminster office. ‘A central piece of this reform will be the devolution of power from Whitehall,' he adds. ‘I really do believe, over the next two general elections, one of the main objectives for me and my party is to force the established parties to agree to a radical re-evaluation of the relationship between local and central government. ‘Until the Conservatives and Labour understand that one cannot just talk the talk and not walk the walk on devolution, we will always have this hollowness.' The Sheffield Hallam MP and former MEP won his party's leadership contest by 20,988 votes to 20,477 votes cast for his rival Chris Huhne in December. Mr Clegg has a sound academic background, having attended three universities, including Cambridge. He worked as a journalist for the Financial Times, where he won a national prize for first-time writers, and then took up a post at the European Commission in 1994. He became an expert on development aid and trade while at the commission and led the EU side in negotiations for China and Russia to join the World Trade Organisation. In 1999, he was elected as an MEP, and became trade and industry spokesman for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. He stood down as an MEP in 2004, and returned to Britain. He then lectured at Cambridge and Sheffield universities. The following year, Mr Clegg was elected as MP for Sheffield Hallam, with a majority of 8,862 votes. He was promptly appointed by the-then leader, Charles Kennedy, as spokesman for Europe. When Menzies Campbell became leader in 2006, he became shadow home secretary. The Liberal Democrats have endured some bad publicity surrounding the last two leaders, but Mr Clegg is keen to point out that he and his deputy, Vince Cable, have not been indulging in ‘student point scoring' like the Conservatives, and instead, are concentrating on the ‘main issues'. ‘It's a huge privilege and I'm enjoying it enormously,' he says. ‘It's a tough job. It's physically very punishing. I have to juggle several balls at once,' he adds. ‘Politics can be quite a rough old business, but it's a joy to champion important issues.' Mr Clegg says much of the spring conference in Liverpool ‘will be centred on our health policies'. The party will be advocating the direct election of health boards as part of a new initiative to promote fairness and quality in health care, he explains. The party also wants to place a statutory duty on health boards and local authorities to integrate health and social care, which is already happening in some parts of the UK. ‘The two established parties underestimate the crisis of over-centralisation and quite how it is crippling public services,' he says. ‘We have got the most over-centralised financial mechanism anywhere in the western world. I think only Malta surpasses us.' Mr Clegg remains committed to scrapping council tax and replacing it with a local income tax, which, he says, will be ‘fair and affordable'. He also remains highly critical of the Government's attempts at devolution, which, he says, are hindered by burdens caused by, among others, the concessionary bus fares schemes. ‘Central government is deliberately setting up local government to fail,' he says. ‘If we look at LAAs, which were touted as being a moderate form of devolution, they are still blighted by 200 central targets.' Mr Clegg says the Liberal Democrats want ‘multi-layered devolution', and points to his party's administrations at Cambridge City Council and their area panels as a prime example. He admits it's ‘difficult to develop hard and fast rules, which apply across the whole country' regarding reorganisation and unitary councils. ‘We have had quite a vigorous debate about unitary structures in Cornwall, whereas in the North East, we have the Government pushing through unitaries, even after the public rejected such moves.' But, before Mr Clegg faces his party in Liverpool, he has one more important hurdle to face. Between speaking to The MJ and delivering a keynote speech in Liverpool, he will also be appearing as a health and safety inspector in a pantomime in Sheffield. It is an annual event for his constituents, but when pressed about which is more difficult – treading the boards or leading a political party – all he says is: ‘A critical Sheffield audience is not a pushover.'

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WHITEHALL

Sheffield's man shows his mettle

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