Every Wednesday lunchtime when parliament is sitting, Nick Clegg gets to his feet in the Commons and asks questions of the prime minister in his role as 20th leader of the Liberals. A quarter of a mile away and a quarter of a century earlier, the teenage Clegg spent the same mid-point of the week at Westminster school's lunches in honour of one of liberalism's founders, John Locke.
"I still feel the utter liberation of it," Clegg told the Guardian this week, trying to pinpoint the moment that shaped his political beliefs. "Going to school in the middle of London, it was precocious and astonishing."
Today a photograph emerged of a young Clegg at Westminster school with his hand in his pocket, just as he stood in the TV debate last week when millions of voters started to listen to him for the first time. He was eyeballing the camera again, just as he did last Thursday. Precocious and astonishing.
Read the full Guardian interview here.
