Nick Clegg Interview: A Year in the Eye of the Storm
THE OBSERVER: From darling of the TV debates to villain of the tuition fees protests, the deputy PM Nick Clegg has had a year of extraordinarily mixed fortunes. Days before the crucial AV vote, he reflects on his punishing first year in office and opens up about life in the coalition, the impact on his family… and having a sneaky fag in the garden

We are talking in his capacious Whitehall quarters with its fine view over St James's Park, and I pop a fairly obvious question: has he enjoyed the last year? Up until this point, Nick Clegg has been as candid, good-humoured and relaxed as it is reasonable to expect from a frontline politician under great pressure. In fact, he has been bouncy. But now the sun disappears behind the low cloud of wariness that scuds across his face. His reply is cagey: "I'm not sure whether to take up your invitation to provide a kind of enjoyment monitor."

He smells a trap. If he responds that it has been a thrill to be the first Liberal in many, many decades to be entitled deputy prime minister, then he will expose himself to the accusation that he is on a power frolic while thousands of voters are suffering the effects of spending cuts, tax rises and job losses. If he says that he hasn't enjoyed it, then he will feed the rumours that he has often been depressed by the onslaught on him.

In the end, though, he can't leave the question alone and comes back to it without prompting: "Enjoyment? Some parts more than others."

In the positive column: "Do I get up every morning and ask: am I doing the things that I believe in and am I doing them for the best possible motives? Yes. Unambiguously yes."

In the negative column, he has been pounded by "a barrage of criticism". It is not David Cameron who has been burnt in effigy by protesting students. It is not George Osborne who has had dog shit poured through his letterbox. It is not William Hague who gets sworn at when he takes to the streets of his constituency. For opponents of the coalition, it is Nick Clegg who is the magnet for loathing. That has got to be tough for a politician who liked it when he was liked.

Many politicians before him have travelled this trajectory from the fresh face enjoying the cheers of the crowd to the battle-bloodied leader who can no longer hope to be loved and must instead aim to gradually win respect for his resilience. Yes, it is a road well travelled. But rarely at such speed. A process that normally takes years – about six if you think of Tony Blair – has in the case of Clegg been compressed into months.

His very existence as deputy prime minister is a daily reminder to the Conservatives and their tribalist mouthpieces in the media that the Tories failed to achieve a clear election win, even against an opponent as unpopular as Gordon Brown. For many on the left, Clegg is the great betrayer who sold out when he contracted his shotgun marriage with David Cameron. » | Andrew Rawnsley | Sunday, May 01, 2011