Not only is Clegg, who turned 41 last week, the youngest of the majorparty leaders, but he also has something of a blot on his copybook,which may endear him to the younger generation. The 16-year-old Cleggwas arrested along with a friend in Munich, Germany, for setting fire torare cacti belonging to a professor, and sentenced to community servicedigging gardens.
"I got into trouble, as I think a lot of teenagers do," Clegg admits. "Iwas no angel. A lot of boys and girls in their teenage years will sailclose to the wind at times. The big question is, why do some children inthat phase of development go right overboard? The criminal justicesystem does not help. We have a system which is so very penal, fromAsbos to the targeting of youth crime, which has sucked a lot ofchildren into the criminal justice system when we want to keep them outof it."
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