Lib Dems ditch key pledges amid economic crisis

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg admitted today that the party was having to jettison key policy pledges as a result of the economic downturn.

Mr Clegg said it was important to treat voters "like grown-ups" as he revealed that a promise of free universal childcare was being ditched.

The leadership is also risking the wrath of the Lib Dem rank and file by delaying its long-standing commitment to abolishing university tuition fees.

"There is a number of multibillion-pound policies we have advocated in the past that we can no longer afford," Mr Clegg told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

"So, for instance, giving everybody free childcare in the way that we had once hoped is no longer possible.

"We will not be able to deliver our pledge on scrapping tuition fees - something we are determined to do - on the timetable we have once envisaged.

"The reason we are doing this is because it is important to treat people like grown-ups.

"People know that the world has changed, that money is not growing on trees, and when money is short you have to make choices, you have to set out priorities.

"They have to be driven by a clear sense of conviction and my driving conviction in all of this is to greater fairness.

"That's why we have picked out our priorities at this early stage and said 'Look, we cannot fight the election campaign in the way that we fought previous election campaigns'."

Launching the Lib Dems' campaign for an expected May 6 general election, Mr Clegg attempted to draw a contrast between his honesty over tight restrictions on spending and the approach from Labour and the Tories.

He insisted the "politics of plenty" was over, and it was now about the "politics of priorities".

Mr Clegg is due to flesh out the Lib Dem election manifesto further in a speech later today, when he will brand recent sparring between Gordon Brown and David Cameron "depressing".

"The other parties managed to produce a greatest hits compilation of almost everything that has turned people off politics," he is due to say.

"Airbrushed posters, meaningless slogans. All set against the spectacle of the Government turning in on itself when the country is crying out for leadership."

Going into his first election as leader, Mr Clegg must ensure he is not squeezed out of the debate in what is expected to be an especially fierce contest between his two larger rivals.

He will say today that Labour and the Tories have failed to acknowledge that the world has changed.

"Bombarding people with gimmicks and promises the country can no longer afford, treating people like children, as if winning elections is simply about who can provide the best shopping list of policies to buy off voter groups one by one - nobody believes a word of it," he will say. "Certainly not the voters, and probably not even the politicians."

The Lib Dem leader will insist that, with the coming poll, the "hype about the future of Britain being at stake is true".

As well as dealing with the crisis in the public finances, the next government will need to "reinvent our rotten political system" and "heal the social divisions" affecting millions.

"None of this can be achieved if we merely tinker at the edges," he will say.

"Talk of change is cheap. Delivering big, permanent change is the real challenge."