Nick Clegg in Norwich

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg's question and answer session in the city went off without incident last night - in marked contrast to Tory leader David Cameron's similar meeting in Norwich just 72 hours before.

Mr Cameron's speech at the Hewett School in Cecil Road on Monday was overshadowed by the reaction he received when he adopted a German accent to slam Labour's plans to introduce ID cards.

Mr Cameron's German-accented question 'Where are your papers?' elicited a strong response from a member of the audience, who questioned its wisdom, although Mr Cameron insisted it was “light-hearted”.

Mr Clegg was careful to avoid any such blunders last night as he outlined to about 90 people at Hellesdon High School how his party differed from the Conservatives ahead of a by-election in Norwich North, following the resignation of Labour MP Ian Gibson.

Mr Clegg spoke for about 90 minutes and took about 30 questions from the audience ranging from withdrawal from the European Union to how to prevent another financial crisis.

The biggest cheer came when Mr Clegg responded to a question from a man who called for the nationalisation of the city's rail and bus service.

Mr Clegg said that “50pc of train journeys” he had travelled on from Norwich to London had been delayed, while Norman Lamb, Lib Dem MP for North Norfolk, who chaired the meeting, suggested he had been lucky.

Mr Clegg called for both services to be brought back into public control, but warned of the costs of renegotiating the contracts to do it.

He also talked about introducing a fairer tax system whereby poorer people would be better-off and called for richer taxpayers to be denied the legal loopholes they currently employ to pay less tax.

Asked how he would involve young people in politics, the MP for Sheffield Hallam, who was elected leader of the Liberal Democrats in December 2007, called for the outdated way politics was conducted in Westminster to be changed.

He said: “It's a Punch and Judy system at the moment. MPs don't talk to each other using their real names, and young people are just not interested in party politics.

“But it's a myth that young people are not interested in politics. If you continually consider all young people to be bad, then they will act badly.”

He also called for the House of Lords to be elected, and said Britain needed to be part of the European Union to tackle international crime and climate change.

He was also involved in an exchange with a woman with disabilities about how social care in Norfolk had been privatised giving users less control.

Labour city councillor Sue Sands, who had also attended the David Cameron meeting, said Mr Clegg had come across as more “personable” and less “glitzy” than the Tory leader.

Before Mr Clegg took questions from the audience, Evening News reporter David Bale spoke to him about his Norfolk connections and his desire to one day spend his summer holidays on the Norfolk Broads.

See the full interfiew at Norwich Evening News