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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Polly Mackenzie

My time in Downing Street: humbling, good for the soul, but painful

Nick Clegg, left, and David Cameron hold their first joint news conference in May 2010.
Nick Clegg, left, and David Cameron hold their first joint news conference in the Downing Street garden, May 2010. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

I arrived at Downing Street half an hour before Nick Clegg – two colleagues and I the only familiar faces among a sea of strangers waiting to welcome him behind the famous black door.

Everything about those first weeks was hyper-real. There is always something strange about being in a place you know well from TV, but have never been to. Trying to work in such a place sometimes feels like you might be acting on a film set. For me and my Liberal Democrat colleagues it was particularly disorienting because, let’s face it, nobody joins the Lib Dems with the expectation they’ll end up in government.

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