'Why do people hate you, daddy?': Even Nick Clegg's son asks him why he's so unpopular
By JAMES CHAPMAN
Last updated at 10:41 PM on 6th April 2011
Nick Clegg said he 'cries regularly to music' and admitted the vitriolic criticism levelled at him had left its mark
Nick Clegg has protested that he is a ‘human being, not a punchbag’ as he revealed even his young son is asking him why he is so unpopular.
In an extraordinarily candid interview, the Deputy Prime Minister said he ‘cries regularly to music’ and admitted the vitriolic criticism levelled at him had left its mark.
Mr Clegg told socialite Jemima Khan that he worries about how attacks on him are affecting his family.
‘What I am doing in my work impacts on them emotionally, because my nine-year-old [Antonio] is starting to sense things and I’m having to explain things. Like he asks, “Why are the students angry with you, Papa?”’ he said.
In the interview, published today in the Left-wing New Statesman magazine, Mr Clegg said he and David Cameron – whom he referred to as Dave – are not ‘mates’ and revealed he does not want to be in politics for his entire career.
‘I think that’s deeply unhealthy,’ he said. ‘I look at those people that got into politics when they were 16 and are still at it in their late 60s and think, “My heavens above!”’
Mr Clegg said, after politics, he hopes to go into education.
The Deputy Prime Minister singled out Labour leader Ed Miliband – who has called him a ‘tragic figure’ – for making personal attacks on him.
Mr Clegg said he and David Cameron - whom he referred to as Dave - are not 'mates'
Mr Clegg said he considers Mr Miliband a ‘perfectly nice guy’ but said it was obvious that he was not in control of his own party and so sought to keep his troops happy by ‘ranting and raving at me’.
However, he conceded that he had been hurt by attacks on him since he joined the Government, in particular over his U-turn on university tuition fees.
In one incident, dog excrement was shoved through his door and he has been spat at in the street. ‘I’m a human being, I’m not a punchbag – I’ve of course got feelings,’ Mr Clegg said.
‘I increasingly see these images of me, cardboard cut-outs that get ever more outlandish.
‘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.’
A protester holding a painting of Cameron and Clegg during the anti-cuts rally on March 26. The deputy PM said: 'I increasingly see these images of me, cardboard cut-outs that get ever more outlandish'
Mr Clegg insisted many members of the public express support for him, but often whisper their congratulations, ‘as if it’s a guilty secret saying anything nice about Nick Clegg’.
Of his university fees U-turn, he said: ‘I have a rather old-fashioned belief that you’ve got to stand by what you’ve done and take the consequences, good or bad.’
But he claimed that scrapping fees was not, in any case, one of his main manifesto priorities.
Clegg singled out Labour leader Ed Miliband (pictured) - who has called him a 'tragic figure' - for making personal attacks on him
‘I didn’t even spend that much time campaigning on tuition fees,’ he said.
Mr Clegg said the Lib Dems had had to abandon their traditional stance as the third party criticising from the sidelines. ‘I don’t even pretend we can occupy the Lib Dem holier-than-thou, hands entirely clean and entirely empty type stance,’ he said. ‘No, we are getting our hands dirty.’
The Deputy Prime Minister insisted that his relationship with Mr Cameron is not particularly close, saying they had played tennis together only once.
Mr Clegg said he knew nothing about Mr Cameron’s relationship with media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s inner circle. It emerged earlier this year that the Prime Minister attended a dinner at the Oxfordshire home of Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of Mr Murdoch’s News International.
‘Look, you’re putting me in a very awkward spot,’ Mr Clegg said. ‘If you’ve got an issue with it, speak to Dave [Cameron]. I don’t hang out in Oxfordshire at dinner parties. It’s not my world.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374185/Nick-Cleggs-son-asks-Why-people-hate-daddy.html#ixzz1ImbjLU5j