You're about to listen to a BBC podcast, but this is about something else you might enjoy.

My name's Katie Lecky and I'm an assistant commissioner for on demand music on BBC Sounds.

The BBC has an incredible musical heritage and culture and as a music lover, I love being part of that.

With music on sounds, we offer collections and mixes for everything, from workouts to

helping you nod off, boogie in your kitchen, or even just a moment of calm. And they're all put

together by people who know their stuff. So if you want some expertly curated music in your life,

check out BBC Sounds. Hello, I'm Krista Young. Thank you for downloading this podcast of Desert Island Discs from BBC Radio 4.

For rights reasons, the music choices are shorter than in the radio broadcast.

For more information about the program, please visit BBC.co.com.uk slash Radio 4.

My castaway this week is the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg.

As Deputy Prime Minister, he's the most powerful Liberals since Lloyd George led a coalition government during the First World War.

90 years ago, the Liberals needed the support of the Conservatives in order to govern.

This time around, of course,

it's the Lib Dems doing the propping up. There's a life outside Westminster, too. He speaks five languages, has three young children, and worked on both the left and the right of the political

spectrum before standing for election himself. He says, joining the Liberal Party was a no-brainer for me. When you're a young

man, you don't get a calculator out saying, when am I going to get to power? You're propelled

forward by idealism. So propelled by idealism, Nick Clegg, but not apparently sustained by

it. Your ideals weren't much in evidence as you patted George Osborne on the back

this week after he delivered the most swinging cuts this country has seen in living memory.

Well, of course, I wasn't doing so with any sense of relish or triumphalism about what we had to

announce, but we've had to, as a government, announce extraordinary difficult and unpopular and controversial things.

And I've spent, well, every day of this process, pretty well every minute of this process, asking myself whether there are sort of pain-free alternatives, whether we're doing the right thing.

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