Nick Clegg said there was no easy alternative to the programme of cuts Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has told how he searched his conscience over the coalition’s spending cuts.
The Liberal Democrat leader said he found that putting through the measures was “morally difficult”.
But, appearing on BBC Radio 4’s Desert Island Discs, he said there were no “pain-free alternatives”.
Mr Clegg’s music choices on the programme includes David Bowie, and he chose a “stash of cigarettes” as his luxury item for the desert island.
Speaking about the cuts, he said: “I have spent every day of this process, pretty well every minute of this process, asking myself whether there are pain-free alternatives, whether we are doing the right thing, and I genuinely believe there is no easy alternative.
“I have certainly searched long and hard into my own conscience about whether what we are doing is for the right reasons.
“I am not going to hide the fact that a lot of this is difficult. I find it morally difficult. It is difficult for the country.”
When presenter Kirsty Young suggested that Mr Clegg was looking “very tired and very worn down by it all”, he joked that it was down to “a combination of work and small children”.
As well as Bowie’s Life on Mars, Mr Clegg’s discs included Sunday Morning Coming Down by Johnny Cash, The Cross by Prince, and 2010 World Cup theme Waka Waka by Shakira.
He also plumped for Idil Biret playing Chopin’s Waltz in A Minor, and Schubert’s Impromptu No.3 in G Flat Major played by Alfred Brendel.
His book was The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.
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