TIMES ONLINE: Nick Clegg tells The Times that, despite his opposition to a like-for-like replacement for Trident, he still wants Britain to punch above its weight. And he wishes he’d taken a bet on shortened odds on his occupying No 10
Nick Clegg does not appear to be a betting man. If he were, he might have taken a punt on the rank outsider that no one saw coming. What appeared a reckless bet a couple of weeks ago now looks interesting; what would have been an absurd question is now just a straight-forward one. Is he worried about becoming Prime Minister? The odds on such an outcome from May 6 are down from 100-1 to 10-1.
“Really?” He looks surprised. “I should have put a bet on.”
Instantly, the brow furrows as he calculates how off- message he has just veered. “Joking aside, joking aside . . .” Equally quickly, he relaxes. “More to the point, why didn’t I put any money on earlier?”
With one fence to go, the self-styled outsider is, remarkably, in with a shout. If this debate-dominated campaign is a three-act play, the first saw Mr Clegg storm the stage; in the second he showed he was there to stay. The third, tomorrow in Birmingham, will help to dictate the shape of the next government in which it is anything but fanciful to expect him to be playing a part.
The scale of his insurgency, or Cleggmania to give it its official title, is such that there is more than one scenario that would see him addressing the nation from in front of the door to Number 10.
Is he ready for it, the immensity of it? “I honestly wouldn’t have put myself forward and put my family, with everything it implies to have a politician as a husband and a father, if I didn’t genuninely feel that what I believe or what I represent are big changes that would genuinely make a big difference.” But it’s a hell of a job >>> Roland Watson and James Harding | Wednesday, April 28, 2010
