Clegg plays to the Lib Dem gallery in fast tracking 40 infrastructure projects

As always with politicians their speeches are significant not so much for their content as for their timing and their message.
Take Deputy PM and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg's address at the LSE on September 14. Some of the national media in the morning trailed the fact that he was 'fast tracking' 40 major infrastructure projects. But the real story was how he was setting out his wares in advance of the Liberal Democrat conference.
Clegg has to stand by the government's deficit strategy and indeed he said so in his speech. But this is unpopular in his own party, many of whom are calling for 'Plan B' with a slowdown in public spending cuts. So Clegg then maintained that there was a backlog of big projects sitting in Whitehall, already accounted for in the budget, but grinding through the system. If these could be pushed through, was his message, then they would help alleviate some of the impact of spending cuts on employment and the economy. In effect he was calling for more public spending to offset public spending cuts, surely as near an appeal to bring in Plan B as he can.
But Cameron and Osborne will be relaxed because they know the Liberal Democrat conference is looming and the last thing they want is Clegg being howled down. They also realise that highlighting the headline 40 infrastructure projects is the usual example of political smoke and mirrors. The aim is entirely to get Nick Clegg out of a tight spot by being seen to 'do something' about the economy without really doing anything at all.