Nick Clegg Quotes

A collection of quotes by Nick Clegg.

Nick Clegg is a British politician and former Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. He was born on January 7, 1967 in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire. Clegg studied anthropology at the University of Cambridge before continuing his education at the College of Europe in Belgium, where he gained a master's degree in European Affairs.

Clegg began his political career working as an aide to Leon Brittan, a prominent Conservative politician. However, he later joined the Liberal Democrats and was elected as a Member of Parliament (MP) for Sheffield Hallam in 2005. He quickly rose through the ranks of the party and became its leader in 2007.

Clegg gained significant public attention during the 2010 general election when the Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party, and he assumed the role of Deputy Prime Minister under Prime Minister David Cameron. In this role, Clegg advocated for political and social reforms, including the introduction of same-sex marriage and electoral reform.

After the 2015 general election, the Liberal Democrats suffered electoral losses, leading Clegg to resign as leader of the party. He continued to serve as an MP until the 2017 general election, after which he stepped away from frontline politics.

Beyond his political career, Clegg has been involved in several philanthropic efforts, including work on climate change and social mobility. In 2018, he joined Facebook as its Vice President for Global Affairs and Communications, where he oversees the company's international affairs and public relations.

I have got instincts that, I think, are very much in tune wi

I have got instincts that, I think, are very much in tune with people's very keen sense to see something different. I did not dream of being in politics since I was knee-high to a grasshopper. I was not involved in student politics, or not in that partisan way.

We need to teach our kids, because there is such a celebrity

We need to teach our kids, because there is such a celebrity culture at the moment, that however rich you are, however famous you are, however glamorous you are, everyone has to live by the same rules.

I am quite strict as a dad but I don't want to be censorious

I am quite strict as a dad but I don't want to be censorious.

If you scratch below the surface and ask what really makes m

If you scratch below the surface and ask what really makes me tick, it's the liberalism of trying to promote freedom and opportunity. Promoting social mobility is one of the keys to that.

I didn't become leader to transform the Liberal Democrats in

I didn't become leader to transform the Liberal Democrats into an enlarged form of the Electoral Reform Society. It's not the be all and end all for us. There are other very, very key ambitions in politics, not least social mobility and life chances, that I care about as passionately if not more.

Liberalism is a really old British tradition and it has a co

Liberalism is a really old British tradition and it has a completely different attitude towards the individual and the relationship between the individual and the state than the collectivist response of Labour, and particularly Old Labour, does.

I am a passionate believer in freedom of speech. I would not

I am a passionate believer in freedom of speech. I would not support anything which would impinge on aggressive robust freedom of the British press, but when things go wrong and there has been outright illegality, there should be proper accountability.

The UK is not going to leave the European Union. Of course n

The UK is not going to leave the European Union. Of course not. We are inextricably wound up with Europe. In terms of culture, history and geography, we are a European nation.

I don't watch a huge amount of telly. I read a lot. I'm read

I don't watch a huge amount of telly. I read a lot. I'm reading at the moment 'Freedom,' by Jonathan Franzen, a great big brick of a book, and I'm loving it.

The British political system and the whole clapped out Westm

The British political system and the whole clapped out Westminster architecture, and the language that we use about politics, it's completely unsustainable. You either decide to be part of that transition to do something different. Or you cling to old certainties.

I'm very lucky. I am one of those people who is able to go h

I'm very lucky. I am one of those people who is able to go home, shut the front door and completely focus on the kids.

Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be don

Most of what needs to be changed in the euro zone can be done without treaty changes. The demand for treaty change is as political as it is legal and I don't think it's going to happen soon.

You have a political and media elite who have an idiom by wh

You have a political and media elite who have an idiom by which they describe politics. It's highly, highly polarised. It's right, left, red, blue, up, down, victorious, crushed.

One thing I have frankly decided is that when it comes to po

One thing I have frankly decided is that when it comes to political reform we have two conservative parties in British politics. Both the Labour and Conservative parties have constantly and repeatedly failed to honour promises they have made about reforming, cleaning, modernising our clapped-out system.

One thing I've very quickly learned is that if you wake up e

One thing I've very quickly learned is that if you wake up every morning worrying about what's in the press, you would go completely and utterly potty.

When I became leader, I made very clear I was not going to c

When I became leader, I made very clear I was not going to choose the easy life. I have always taken risks. I don't like comfort-zone politics.

If the euro zone doesn't come up with a comprehensive vision

If the euro zone doesn't come up with a comprehensive vision of its own future, you'll have a whole range of nationalist, xenophobic and extreme movements increasing across the European Union. And, frankly, questions about the British debate on EU membership will just be a small sideshow compared to the rise of political populism.

One of the big changes in politics has been because families

One of the big changes in politics has been because families, individuals, have felt worried, insecure... worried about the economy, worried about their jobs, worried about their kids' futures... actually the disconnect between the public and media discourse and people's everyday concerns has become bigger not smaller.

What I hope is in five years' time, I can go to the British

What I hope is in five years' time, I can go to the British people in the election and say: Lots of you doubted that coalition politics worked, but it has worked.

My dad's side of the family had lots of artists and musician

My dad's side of the family had lots of artists and musicians. There's an emotional, quite sentimental quality to Slavic culture. It's very open, it loves art, it loves music, it loves literature. It's very warm, it's very up, it's very down. I would celebrate that.