Nick Clegg gave his first "big speech" as party leader today and to be fair, he did well in as far as he managed to sound exciting and passionate, which Ming never did.

I was less convinced by his content, however, which smacked a bit of the same old vacuous Lib Dems. In particular he made a dash to try and position the Lib Dems as the party for the disaffected by saying that Labour and the Conservatives are "all the same." But you do not have to look too hard at the events in Parliament last week to see what nonsense this is.

Gordon Brown marched his Labour colleagues through the division lobbies to vote against the Conservative proposal for a referendum on the EU Constitution Reform Treaty. So there was a big ideological difference between Labour and the Conservatives on this issue - but where were the Lib Dems? Well, Mr Clegg decided that the decision was just too difficult for his party and so he ordered them to abstain.

All three of the main political parties promised a referendum on the treaty at the last General Election but only the Conservatives stuck to their promise on Wednesday. So the next time Mr Clegg decides to claim that "they are all the same" he ought to bear in mind that it was him and his party who joined Gordon Brown in breaking their manifesto promises whilst the Conservatives kept theirs.

Who is really offering a different approach to government Mr Clegg? It is certainly not the same old Lib Dems who continue to duck the difficult issues that our country faces.