Over at The Independent, Lib Dem spokesman on Work and Pensions Steve Webb answers questions from the paper’s readers, such as ‘Aren’t you having it both ways on the deficit?’ and ‘Isn’t Clegg really a Tory?’ Here are 3 of the Q&As …

Why haven’t British politicians learned the lesson of welfare reform in Wisconsin? Cut benefits, create jobs, and end a dependency culture. Christopher Rope, Ipswich

There are plenty of people who receive benefits through no fault of their own, so how is cutting benefits across the board morally defensible? The phrase “dependency culture” is insulting to those who have poor health or family responsibilities or other perfectly good reasons for relying on what I still think of “social security”, many of whom would love to be able to get out and work. Wisconsin-style measures cut the “welfare rolls” but what happens to those people and their children then?

Isn’t your party’s policy on the deficit trying to have it both ways – you’ll keep spending now, but cut most drastically later? Sounds like a fudge. Rachel Fisk, Oldham

We think that the recovery is fragile, which is why a carefully costed green jobs boost is the top priority for the first year of a new Parliament. But we also think we need to be honest about the task of tackling the deficit by being specific about what we would cut.

When did you realise that you weren’t a Tory? Neil Redding, Bromsgrove

My academic research involved tracking trends in poverty in the UK in the late 1980s. Every year our analysis would find that Britain had got more unequal. Whilst the Tories were cutting taxes at the top, the poor were being left behind, even being forced to borrow money for basic needs through the Social Fund. They were also cutting back on the help they gave to the poorest people around the world. My instincts are to side with the marginalised and the dispossessed; the Tory instinct is all too often to help the powerful get what they want.

You can read the full interview with Steve here.