Nick Clegg has been spending a lot of time in his constituency recently. He was there regularly as Deputy Prime Minister, but now he unconstrained by office, he can afford to get up there during the week. He spoke to the Star:

The ‘trappings of power’ have gone, with a security team reduced, the ministerial Blackberry returned and fewer staff – it is a big change from striding along the corridors of power in Whitehall to campaigning on tree felling in Sheffield.

As it happens I’m really enjoying having more time to work in the constituency again,” insists Mr Clegg.

When the Conservatives and SNP argued each other to a standstill on fox hunting, I was able to jump on a train and went straight to the leaving party of a headteacher at Dore Primary School – I would never have been able to do that before.

Things like that, I really enjoy. I’m going to take the time to relish the opportunity I have now to immerse myself more in the community of Sheffield Hallam.

The nature of politics is that when things change, they do so very abruptly and publicly. While, of course, there is all the things you will instantly lose and quite rightly, such as the trappings of power and people who help you, but what has changed the most and what I enjoy most is I just have much more direct contact with the public day-to-day, because I’m not surrounded by a circle of heavies or rushing from one thing to the next all the time.

It’s also been fascinating to see the huge amount of people who say that, even if they didn’t vote for us, how sad they are to see that it ended the way it did.