All work, rest and clay for leader Clegg...
A FIAT Punto pulls up outside Greystones School.
It’s not the flashiest mode of transport for a prime ministerial contender, but for Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg the car is symbolic of his political stance, one marked by second-class seats on trains and nondescript offices.
He’s here to open a new building at Greystones Primary, in his leafy Sheffield Hallam constituency.
Staff at the school say the 42-year-old has the ‘common touch’ and, as he wanders round the site, it’s not hard to see why they feel that way.
Clegg, whose own mum was a teacher, is easy among people, forthcoming and jovial, regaling staff with tales of previous school visits.
“I visited one school and had a go with a skipping rope. This child overtook me – I was absolutely knackered and struggling for breath,” he laughs.
His visit is brief. It’s Thursday, surgery day, and the Lib Dem leader must return to Nethergreen Road and his constituency office – a modest building at the back of a small yard.
He sits, legs crossed, on old-fashioned pine furniture. “It’s hardly glamorous,” he laughs.
The discreet setting also reflects Nick Clegg’s rather unkind nickname of ‘Invisible Clegg’, which he is quick to dismiss.
“I don’t recognise that,” he says. “I don’t think anyone can reasonably say we have not been right out there in public debate.”
Clegg became MP for Sheffield Hallam in 2005, and his constituency includes some of the most affluent wards in the country.
Since securing the seat, Clegg has divided his time between London and Sheffield, although he says: “I’m a Sheffielder by convert – I moved up here from Nottingham so I’ve got the zeal of the convert!
“I think – and I’m not just saying this – it’s one of the greatest cities in Britain, partly because Sheffield’s less brash than other cities – a little more modest.
“The people are true to themselves. They’re straight with each other. No wonder they call Sheffield the biggest village in the country.”
He admires the city’s diversity – from its thriving cultural centre to the Peak District’s rolling hills, although he admits: “Some of that diversity is tragic. A child born in one of the poorest parts of the city will die an average of 14 years earlier than a child born in a more affluent part of town.”
Poverty is something Clegg can only sympathise with, however. He was educated at the illustrious public Westminster School.
He then studied anthropology at Cambridge University, the University of Minnesota and the College of Europe in Bruges – where he met his Spanish wife commercial lawyer Miriam Gonzalez Durantez.
He worked as an intern in New York on The Nation magazine and later The Financial Times, until entering the political world as the chief of staff for the European Commission from 1994 to 1999.
He was elected MEP for the East Midlands and, since 2005, as MP for Sheffield Hallam.
His Dutch mother worked as a Montessori teacher and his half-Russian father, a banker, was the son of an aristocrat who fled the Russian revolution.
Having had such a prestigious education and comfortable background, can he really understand the social, financial and educational struggles of many British families?
"I don't believe for a moment that if you have a particular background you can't sympathise with other people, otherwise nothing would ever change."
Clegg's convictions are clear – as is his ambition.
"I want to be prime minister. I wouldn't be doing this job if I wasn't seriously ambitious – not for me but for the Liberal Democrats."
Ambition was the subject of his acceptance speech after being made leader of the Lib Dems at 40 – the youngest party leader in the UK.
That must come with some weighty responsibilities.
"You just don't worry about it too much," he said.
"I think as long as you've got a clear conscience it's no different for me than a teacher or someone who runs a ward. Everybody's got the same responsibilities, arguably much heavier responsibilities than me.
"You've just got to be clear in your conscience that you're working very hard and you're trying very hard and – it sounds like a school report – that you're trying your best. Of course you make mistakes. That's how you learn."
One of Clegg's 'mistakes' was telling Piers Morgan he had slept with 'no more than 30 women'.
"Anyone who reads it will see what I was trying to do. I was trying to interrupt the guy. He was literally making up numbers and I was trying to avoid answering the question. Piers Morgan's a very intrusive interviewer."
And while journalists leapt on the intrigue surrounding Clegg's sexual track record, the 'no more than 30' scandal overshadowed far greater intrigue - that of Clegg's family history.
His Russian grandmother was raised by her aunt, Moura Budberg, a Russian-born noblewoman whom the press has accused of working as a double agent and who, according to Clegg himself, had affairs with Maxim Gorky, and HG Wells. "She was an unusual woman," he admits.
But Clegg describes his seemingly exotic background as "not unusual – they were just caught up in the big turmoils of the last century".
There's a quirkiness to Clegg's persona.
He admits he used to play the drums, and cites his favourite drummer as Police percussionist Stewart Copeland.
And he says he's an avid reader – primarily of non-fiction.
"I'm reading J M Coetzee's Summertime at the moment and I've just finished Left to Tell, about the Rwandan genocide. I always read a book before I go to bed."
But, asked what he enjoys doing most, he replies: "Clay sculpting. When I'm rejected from politics I'll return to that!"
Leaders join forces at University
FORMER Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown joined Nick Clegg for a question-and-answer session at Sheffield University.
The first question, asked by a student and member of the Libertarian Party, attacked the Lib Dems' "rejection of liberal principles" and argued "the party's own MPs don't even know what its principles are".
But Clegg bit back.
"Thanks for kicking things off. It's nice to know we're preaching to the converted - not!"
A series of sedate questions followed with lengthy answers from both Clegg and Ashdown, until a lady from the side of the lecture theatre shouted out.
"The Lib Dems have done nothing to help me," she said.
Her comments were echoed by a teacher from Abbeydale Grange, who stood up to target Clegg on the potential closure of Abbeydale Grange School.
The audience was surprised by the outburst, but not Clegg.
"I'm a politician – nothing surprises me," he shrugged afterwards.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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