Deputy prime minister and Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, has praised the diversity of opinion in the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition.

Interviewed by Today presenter James Naughtie, Mr Clegg said he was confident that the government had a workable agenda. "This is a government of reform. And I know everybody is quite understandably asking lots of questions about -- How will it work? Who's up? Who's down? Who agrees with who and who disagrees with who?

"Actually if you look at what we announced in our coalition government, it's a remarkable document. I genuinely think it is a document of immense ambition."

And he added that, over time, people will see "a pattern of a government that is strengthened by having these different philosophies and different identities within it".

Mr Clegg also pledged that the next general election "will be fought on different boundaries and with a new electoral system".

Commenting on the situation in Israel, he said that maintaining the blockade against Gaza "is not in Israel's own long term interest".

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