NICK CLEGG has come in for his fair share of criticism since he chose to take his party into a coalition government with the Conservatives.

Yet speaking to The Press before the start of the Liberal Democrats’ spring conference in York, he talked a good deal of sense.

York is succeeding because it has a diverse economy, the Deputy Prime Minister said.

“What went wrong in the past was when cities relied heavily on the public sector or one industry at the exclusion of others. But York, very importantly, has a diverse range of businesses.”

Mr Clegg also praised York’s efforts to tackle deprivation – efforts backed by The Press’s Stamp Out Poverty campaign.

Too often Whitehall tried to call all the shots, he said. But York’s anti-poverty work showed that “sometimes, the best solutions to the most complex problems are found locally.”

You may or may not agree with what Mr Clegg has to say in today’s newspaper about immigration, the EU and employment.

Nevertheless, it is great to see a major national party choosing to hold a big conference in York again.

It is great exposure for the city, showing that we are well up to the challenge of hosting major events.

And hopefully many of the delegates spending the next couple of days here will like what they see – and will tell their friends, or come back themselves in future.