Newsbeat

The polls say Nick Clegg is winning the youth vote, and yesterday he faced a panel of Radio 1 and 1Xtra listeners in the second of Tulip Mazumdar's election specials for Newsbeat . This was outstanding news broadcasting – to a low-level dance beat, we got a run-down of Lib Dem policies, the dry details leavened with plenty of youth-friendly nuggets (that the party proposes £55 a week for those on work experience; that aged 16, Clegg did community service for setting fire to cacti while drunk). Scene set, Clegg met his inquisitors, eight first-time voters. He began by asserting his Mr Normal credentials, saying that his three children are still stuck in Spain with his in-laws, and he's spending more time arranging their travel home than campaigning. He sounded natural among young people: to Siobhan, 25, who wondered why people say a Lib Dem vote is a wasted one, he said, "They say that 'cos they don't want stuff to change." Kate, 28, was told she was "dead right" to question where cuts could be made . Speaking fast and sounding passionate, he avoided negative attacks, other than sly references to the two "old parties". He finished with a clever compliment: "You're all tougher than Jeremy Paxman". It might not have been true, but it went down a storm.