Signalling a left turn, or just pandering? Nick Clegg blames the Labour government for not spending enough

By Bagehot

FAR from the watchful press pack in Westminster, Nick Clegg gave a strikingly left-wing speech at the Liberal Democrats Welsh conference on March 3rd. Sophisticated types will tell you not to pay too much attention to party leaders when they address such specialised gatherings. It’s all noise and pandering, they murmur, nothing to worry about. Doubtless they are correct. And yet, when Bagehot scanned the speech as it pinged into his Blackberry, your blogger still found himself wondering: what was Mr Clegg thinking?

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