Bernard Ginns: Depression, socialism, communism... tough life for Clegg

It is a fair question to ask and I put it to the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg in Sheffield when we met on Friday.

He is quick to dismiss even the notion of a deeper downturn, in spite of august journals such as The Economist warning that “the euro area is walking, eyes wide open, into depression”.

“Oh we’re not... depressions are downward cycles, the likes of which we haven’t really seen since the 1930s.

“What we are recovering from is this almighty shock in 2008, which with the benefit of hindsight was even more serious then than we appreciated at the time because our banking system blew up in our face.”

No dispute there. He goes on: “When I came into Government I discovered that the liabilities in the British banking system alone were four times the size of the British economy. That gives you a flavour of how serious things are. It’s just going to take some time to put these things right.

“You cannot recover from an economic cardiac arrest of that severity overnight.”

I ask how long he thinks it will take us to recover. Conspicuously, he does not give me a straight answer. No surprise.

“Bit by bit we are doing the right things,” he says, reeling off a flurry of initiatives to prove the point, including restoring public finances, lowering corporation tax, reducing red tape for new micro-businesses, expanding apprenticeships and creating a national infrastructure plan.

Mr Clegg adds: “What we’re working on in Government is using the Government’s balance sheet as collateral to provide guarantees to get more money into the real economy, more money into the hands of entrepreneurs who can’t otherwise get loans at reasonable rates, more money into infrastructure, particularly housing and transport.”

I ask if the Business Secretary Vince Cable is a socialist. Again a perfectly reasonable question, based on recent fall-out from the Beecroft report and some of its recommendations.

“Of course he’s not a socialist, he’s a liberal,” says Clegg, dismissively.

“He was called a socialist this week and I was called a communist. It’s the first time I’ve ever been branded more left-wing than Vince Cable.

“As it happens, the truth is we are both liberals.”

And for the record, as we are at an event to celebrate enterprise, he adds: “I’m an old-fashioned liberal, I believe in the virtues of hard work, innovation and entrepreneurialism.”

Running out of time, I ask about Europe and the single-most important thing that its leaders must do to resolve the crisis.

The day before, he met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and her Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

Mr Clegg says: “The great problem is that the remedy for the eurozone has been too fragmented, too bitty.

“It’s been a summit looking at the banks one moment, it’s been a summit looking at sovereign debt the next, a summit looking at increased competitiveness... you’ve got to put all these different ingredients together into a single, new grand bargain.

“You couple public finance discipline with new measures to foster growth and demand and you couple new constraints to stop governments messing things up with new forms of solidarity so weaker parts of the eurozone are assisted and supported by the strongest parts.

“There’s been too much piece-meal policymaking. Everybody knows in the long run what’s needed for a stable single currency. There’s an urgent need now to bring it all together into one final settlement.”

Now that’s what I call a tall order. The interview draws to a close and I ask another question as this tired-looking man heads out of the room.

“Are you enjoying it?”

“Enjoying what?”

“Being Deputy Prime Minister?

“Who wouldn’t?” he says rhetorically, before adding “it’s tough”. I believe him.

WE were in Sheffield for the launch of MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival.

Now in its third year, this event has succeeded in bringing some of Britain’s most inspiring and inspired businessmen and women to South Yorkshire for a three-day jamboree, or as someone else put it, ‘Davos for entrepreneurs’.

“Year one was a start-up. Year two felt like high growth. This year, we are scaling up on all fronts,” says Michael Hayman, the festival chairman.

He is lining up new speakers such as Robin Rowland, chief executive of YO! Sushi, Charles Morgan, founder of Morgan Motor Company, and Lord Bilimoria, founder of Cobra beers, as well as festival favourites Peter Jones, Doug Richard and, yes, Vince Cable.

The Duke of Devonshire is joining the fun this year, hosting an ‘E20’ summit at Chatsworth.