By Vivienne Russell | 21 September 2011
Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has reaffirmed the coalition’s commitment to its deficit-reducing course.
In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat’s annual conference in Birmingham this afternoon, Clegg said Britain would be in ‘deep trouble’ if the party had not gone into coalition with the Conservatives.
The decision to clear the structural deficit this Parliament was ‘agonisingly difficult’, but ‘right’, he said.
‘Handing control of the economy to bond traders: that’s not progressive. Burying your head in the sand: that’s not liberal. Saddling our children with the nation’s debt: that’s not fair.’
Clegg attacked the Labour Party for offering ‘too little, too late’.
He added: ‘Labour’s economy was based on bad debt and false hope. Labour got us into this mess. But they are clueless about how to get us out. Another term of Labour would have been a disaster for our economy.’
The deputy prime minister admitted that the most ‘heart-wrenching’ decision he’d had to take was what to do about student fees. The LibDems have been castigated for breaking their pre-election pledge to scrap the fees.
‘I have learned from it,’ Clegg said. ‘And I know how much damage this has done to us as a party… by far the most painful part of our transition. From the easy promises of opposition to the invidious choices of government.’
But he said the LibDems did the ‘best thing we could’ in the circumstances to ensure access to university remains wide and graduate repayments are fair.
