Nick Clegg quotes

Nick Clegg is a British politician and former leader of the Liberal Democrats. He played a pivotal role as Deputy Prime Minister in the UK coalition government from 2010 to 2015. He currently works as President for Global Affairs at Meta (formerly Facebook). Here are 59 of his quotes:

The home secretary and the Home Office – they can try to make the case as many times as they like but this idea, which was the idea of the heart of the snooper's charter, that every single website that you visit and every single website that anyone visits in this country is logged somewhere, that's just not going to happen while I'm in government. (Nick Clegg)
What people have dubbed the snooper's charter - I have to be clear with you, that's not going to happen. View quote
Nick Clegg
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. View quote
Nick Clegg
The Liberal Democrat Party and the Conservative Party come at things very differently when it comes to Europe. When it comes to political reform, we have a much greater tradition in the Liberal Democrats of social justice and fairness than the Conservatives do. View quote
Nick Clegg
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. View quote
Nick Clegg
I think that the days when newspaper barons could basically click their fingers and governments would snap to attention have gone. View quote
Nick Clegg
For far too long the world's poorest people have seen no benefit from the vast natural resources in their own backyards. It is time to end the injustice where ordinary people are silent witnesses, left to suffer without basic services, as the profits from their countries' assets are hidden and plundered by corrupt regimes. View quote
Nick Clegg
In politics, you live by the sword, and you die by the sword. View quote
Nick Clegg
We would support the government by not voting for a referendum [on the Lisbon treaty]. We would vote against a referendum on the treaty and vote in accordance with our long-held position that the real referendum that needs to be had is whether we stay in the EU or not. View quote
Nick Clegg
If the legislation is passed I will lead a grassroots campaign of civil disobedience to thwart the identity cards programme ... I, and I expect thousands of people like me, will simply refuse ever to register. View quote
Nick Clegg
Maybe he one day - perhaps we will have to wait for his memoirs - could account for his role in the most disastrous decision of all, which is the illegal invasion of Iraq. (Nick Clegg)
Human Rights Act are not, as some would have you believe, foreign impositions. These are British rights, drafted by British lawyers. Forged in the aftermath of the atrocities of the Second World War. Fought for by Winston Churchill. So let me say something really clear about the Human Rights Act. In fact I'll do it in words of one syllable: It is here to stay. View quote
Nick Clegg
Those words revealed a selfless dignity which is very rare in politics but common amongst Liberal Democrats. If our losses today are part payment for every family that is more secure because of a job we helped to create, every person with depression who is treated with a compassion they deserve, every child who does a little better in school, every apprentice with a long and rewarding career to look forward to, every gay couple who know that their love is worth no less than anyone else's and every pensioner with a little more freedom and dignity in retirement then I hope at least our losses can be endured with a little selfless dignity too. View quote
Nick Clegg
In 2007 after a night of disappointing election results for our party in Edinburgh, Alex Cole Hamilton said this: if his defeat was part-payment for the ending of child detention, then he accepted it with all his heart. View quote
Nick Clegg
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. View quote
Nick Clegg
Although I am a young leader, I actually came to it strangely quite late. I have a different perspective, partly because of my family, partly because of what I did for ten years: negotiating trade deals, working out in Central Asia doing assistance projects. View quote
Nick Clegg
The Labour Party has become consumed by collective bile towards... the Liberal Democrats. That portrays a rather nasty arrogance. View quote
Nick Clegg
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. View quote
Nick Clegg
We need to reach out to small 'l' liberal voters who have a modern outlook on life, who want a party that is hard-headed on the economy - more credible on the economy than Labour - but more socially progressive and fairer than the Conservatives. View quote
Nick Clegg
Our Sheffield and London homes are worth well over a million but the bank owns most of them - we are mortgaged up to the gills. View quote
Nick Clegg
Grown-up politicians talk to each other across party lines. Over the last few weeks I have had lengthy conversations with Ed Miliband, David Miliband, with Tony Blair, with Peter Mandelson... talking about Europe, talking about political reform. (Nick Clegg)
Any government, of whatever composition, needs to mobilise opinion way beyond its own ranks in order to do the difficult things that it does. View quote
Nick Clegg
What we should be doing in the EU as a whole is more economic integration in the single market, rather than less. View quote
Nick Clegg
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. View quote
Nick Clegg
I don't want to clip on the armour every morning. I've seen some politicians do this and they get a bit mangled and bitter. I just refuse to do that. I refuse to be angry or bitter or complain, and I remain open. I may sometimes be a bit too open but I'm not going to change that one bit. View quote
Nick Clegg