Lord Ashdown

Questions: Would you agree that Sir Menzies Campbell is a holding leader while some of the younger MPs are brought on and gain experience?

Lord Ashdown: No I don't agree with that and I think that he has put that to bed very effectively.

I think he is, arguably, the leader who will lead the party over the next threshold.

If it's the case that I led the party from the brink of survival to having a very substantial number of MPs so that our survival was not in question and Charles led the party into the next phase, which was to build on that, then I think there is every chance that Menzies will lead the party into the next phase, which as he described in his acceptance speech is being ready to play in the game of power.

I think he is a leader who has an historic opportunity, a real chance to achieve it and all the skills to do that. What he will make of that is up to him but I don't think he is a caretaker.

I think this is a role in which he will have to pull the party over the threshold and that is a very important role.

In a different sense I think he is a bridge to the future, not because he is a caretaker but because there is now a very strong cohort of new young MPs. Menzies recognises those values and he is the person to bring them on.

In that sense he is the bridge to the future, he will bring the future talent on in the party. He will make it possible for those young men and women to develop and become serious players in the future.

He is a bridge to the future as the godfather of new talent and he still has a very important role to play.

Ashdown on the 'young Turks'

Question: It doesn't concern you that a lot of the frontbench spokesmen are very young and inexperienced?

Lord Ashdown: Someone asked me the other day what advice I would give to Menzies Campbell and I said I would give him one piece of advice which would be: don't listen to any advice given in public by old leaders of the party.

Question: Do you rate Nick Clegg as future leadership material?

Lord Ashdown: Yes I do. Nick is one of the very brightest. I remember going to see Leon Brittan, for whom Nick worked in the European Commission, and Brittan said: "This is the brightest guy I have ever met and I have been desperately being trying to persuade him to join the Tory Party but he refuses and for some bizarre reason wants to join you lot, can you help?"

From that moment on I have recognised Nick as someone who has all the gifts of a politician who can work at the highest level. He has got the poise, he's got the presence, he writes like a dream and I think he's got the intelligence and courage.

The interesting thing is that the party has an embarrassment of choice and I think Sarah Teather is extremely effective. Ed Davey is another, David Laws took over my own constituency. Chris Huhne showed extraordinary ability in the recent leadership campaign.

The party really does have some tremendous talent coming through. I'm not going to pick out any one of these, it would be the mark of Kane if I did, but there is a very bright young cohort of MPs coming through.

Ashdown on left/right splits

Question: With policies like Royal Mail privatisation are you concerned about the party drifting to the right?

Lord Ashdown: There is a false dichotomy between the liberal social element of the party on one hand and the liberal economic element on the other.

If you look at the Liberals in their heyday, and let's remember the SDP is part of this, the SDP root is very, very important in this, and that's what's brought us to this point.

In many ways what you see today is the old Liberal social conscious combined with modern liberal economics. It is making that combination that is so important.

They can meld together if we can build an effective liberal market economy in this country that nevertheless distributes to the less well-off and build something economically efficient and socially just. These two are not opposites.

The trick the party has to fulfil is to bring these two together as a coherent whole, which I think we're well advanced in doing.

Ashdown on Cameron

Question: Are you concerned about a seemingly resurgent Conservative Party that seems to heading for the centre ground?

Lord Ashdown: Yes, the centre ground is getting crowded but I think the questions we have to ask of Cameron are: "If you wrote the last Tory manifesto, and up until now you have supported these policies, then why should we believe you when you say that suddenly you have changed to occupy the broadly liberal ground? Do you mean it and why should we trust you?"

I think he has given us an opportunity provided we stick to our ground and articulate it better than anybody else.

There is no doubt the centre ground is getting crowded and there is no doubt that everybody understands that that is where they need to be, but it is where the Lib Dems have always been and we haven't had to change our policies because people disliked us so much like the Tories.

This is our ground and provided we are clear enough on it, tough enough on it, sharp enough on it, courageous enough on it, then there is no reason we shouldn't profit on it.

This is a moment of danger, but it is also a moment of huge opportunity.

Ashdown on Bosnia

Question: You have just finished you're tenure as special representative in Bosnia. Are you confident about the region's future?

Lord Ashdown: Nothing is ever irreversible. If someone says to me, "is it now irreversible that Bosnia will make the transition to becoming a stable state?", I would say no it is not inevitable, but it is highly likely providing the Bosnians continue doing the kinds of things they have been doing.

This is a country that has rebuilt itself and peace faster than any other country I know of, particularly after such a terrible war. It has made progress much faster than Northern Ireland for example.

The other thing it is dependent on is the international community's commitment there.

The key thing is that the magnetic pull of Europe remains strong. If the EU suddenly decides that the commitment it made in Greece in 2003 that the Western Balkans would come into Europe is not going to happen, then everything would be reversible.

The prospect of joining Europe is the only glue that holds this region together.

If those three things stay in place then I am confident Bosnia will continue its journey.

It will never look like Britain - there will be a high degree of devolution. It will look more like Belgium or Switzerland, but it can be a proper European country and Europe will be the stronger and richer for that.