To the average voter the next General Election is almost two years away.

To Nick Clegg, however, it is now just 22 press conferences to polling day. Yesterday, at the first of these monthly events, the Liberal Democrat leader stood in a small room in Admiralty House, on London's Whitehall, and prepared to take the pain.

For more than an hour he took questions on issues ranging in scope from spying to shale gas. The effect was almost Prime Ministerial. Except, of course, that as the leader of the minority party in the Coalition, Mr Clegg is the Deputy Prime Minister.

In fact the Prime Minister, Conservative leader David Cameron, gave up on this kind of monthly press conference years ago. In Downing Street the events are widely seen as too high risk and too time-consuming.

Unforgotten is the time Mr Cameron spent 45 minutes answering a myriad of questions only for everything he said to be overshadowed almost the moment he stopped speaking by the news that Business Secretary Vince Cable had declared "war" on Rupert Murdoch's empire.

So why is Mr Clegg putting himself through it? Part of the answer is that he has to. This time last year trust in his party was at rock bottom following, among other things, its U-turn on raising tuition fees.

Voters said they could not believe what the LibDems said. Worse, polling suggested that they were not even prepared to listen to the public, offering the party no chance to change the political narrative.

So, just before the party conference in September, the LibDems unveiled the now notorious "I'm sorry" video on tuition fees. While it ensured Mr Clegg got noticed, it did not cause the sea-change that had been hoped for.

Further moves have followed. These include a weekly phone-in, "Call Clegg", Mr Clegg hosts on a local radio station.

Aides are now more hopeful that at least some of their message is beginning to get through. But if they want to reach a point where the electorate is open to their arguments in 2015 they have to start now.

While the LibDems believe their best hope of re-election is "dig in" in constituencies where they already have MPs – voices within the party have also stressed the need to build their national appeal. Hence Mr Clegg's move from local "town hall" events to televised press conferences.

Despite the tensions that could be created by its Prime Ministerial feel, the monthly set-pieces have many attractions for the other half of the Coalition.

Mr Clegg has stated that as the Deputy Prime Minister he should be able to handle questions on the big issues of the day.

Many senior Tories will be happy to let him. The dreams of many a Tory backbencher are these days also filled not with marriage but divorce, longing as they do for the days their party leader casts off the pesky LibDems.

Yesterday, in a way that will suit them just fine, Mr Clegg appeared to beat them to the punch.