Most people I meet feel cut off from politics – left out or even ignored most of the time. They don’t have a voice to influence what happens in our country. I’m determined to do everything I can to change that.

Since I became leader of the Liberal Democrats, I’ve held public meetings up and down the country where I meet ordinary people and families for an open discussion. No scripted questions, no pre-prepared answers – just a frank talk between me and local people about issues, problems, and how we can solve them.

The next meeting will be on Thursday 9th October at the Central Baptist Church. I’m really looking forward to being in Essex and meeting local people with our candidate and campaigner Stephen Robinson.

It’s no use politicians waiting in Westminster and assuming they know everything. If you want to understand how things like the credit crunch, lack of affordable housing really affect people, you’ve got to be out meeting people and listening.

The public meetings are a great way to do that - to keep in touch with what matters to real people, outside the Westminster bubble, so I can campaign on it and make a difference. Politics is so often about schoolboy fighting in the House of Commons – and far too little about listening. These meetings are about doing things differently, so that I can champion the causes that people really care about. I hope to see you there.Nick Clegg