The Economist interviews Nick Clegg

The Lib Dem leader is everywhere at the moment. The new issue of The Economist has an interview with him:

Mr Clegg denies that his leadership amounts to a move to the “right” (Lib Dems, with a touch of sophistry, argue that such labels are anachronistic). The left certainly approves of his civil libertarianism and his (now diluted) policy to abolish university-tuition fees. Though he has not called for an end to the war in Afghanistan, he has pleased the left by “rattling the cage” over its conduct.

Still, more than his recent predecessors, he is contemptuous of the idea that Liberalism and Labourism are natural partners whose separation in the early 20th century should now be reversed. “Liberalism is a really old British tradition and it has a completely different attitude towards the individual,” he insists.

That is the best thing about Nick: how ever much you may agree on individual policies, there is no doubt that he is an instinctive Liberal.

In a welcome development, The Economist website also has a transcript of the whole interview.