Clegg paves the way for a war on wealth Nick Clegg is a resilient man. His poll ratings may be in the basement, his status as an internet laughing stock assured, yet the Deputy Prime Minister used his party conference speech yesterday to demonstrate that he remains head and shoulders above any putative challenger for the leadership of the Liberal Democrats. He did so by telling his party what it did not want to hear. This was a speech that George Osborne could have delivered, though he would not have done so with such aplomb. Mr Clegg focused almost exclusively on the economy, and his stance was unyielding. There was no "silver bullet" that could instantly solve our economic problems, he warned. There was no alternative to Plan A, and there is more pain to come. All parties, he said, would have to draw up plans to cut spending further after the 2015 general election. The numbers spoke for themselves. Even after the current cuts, by the end of this parliament public spending will still account for 42 per cent of GDP - more than at any time under Tony Blair's premiership. Over the past 50 years, the economy has grown three-fold but welfare spending has grown seven-fold. We are now borrowing £1 billion every three days to keep the country afloat. The interest paid on this mountainous deficit exceeds the entire education budget. Such an unvarnished assessment of the scale of our economic plight must have been unsettling for a party that has never shown an inclination to dwell in the real world. It struck a welcome contrast to the frankly juvenile proposals that emerged earlier in the week - their beloved "mansion tax" or the removal of universal benefits for pensioners. Both targeted, naturally, only millionaires. It is hard to know what is more depressing about such crowd-pleasers - their economic illiteracy or their spite. And while they may be pie in the sky, the country is clearly being softened up for a wealth tax of some sort. Away from the economy, Mr Clegg was less convincing. He boasted that "our mettle has been tested in the toughest of circumstances and we haven't been found wanting." Many would disagree. The Liberal Democrat contribution to the Coalition has been undistinguished. The referendum on the Alternative Vote, for example, saw senior party figures behave shabbily while at the same time failing to persuade the voters of the merits of the case. Mr Clegg's pet scheme for House of Lords reform was an even greater disaster and has taken the issue off the agenda for the foreseeable future. Yet all that matters far less than the fact that the Liberal Democrats remain wedded to the Government's economic strategy - and that this week the conference overwhelmingly endorsed that stance.