So who's this man cleaning windows in Bristol?

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg paid a visit to Bristol yesterday – but it was hard to find anyone who recognised him. Mr Clegg attended a hostel for the homeless to lend his backing to a Barton Hill-based back-to-work scheme.

But when the Post took a photograph of the politician out and about in Broadmead, few people had a clue who he was.

Out of nine people we spoke to, only one knew who he was immediately, while a second eventually realised he was the leader of the Lib Dems but could not recall his surname.

The other seven were left struggling to identify one of the country's three key political figures, who was elected as Menzies Campbell's successor in December 2007.

Mr Clegg spent the morning at the Salvation Army-run Logos House in Wade Street, St Jude's.

Logos House is the Salvation Army's only residential hostel in Bristol, with 93 beds.

It staff offer support for people who find themselves on the street, help them with their problems, and try to help them turn their lives around in six to nine months.

The Lib Dem leader rolled up his sleeves and washed windows with a 20ft pole during his visit, with a little help from staff with social enterprise Aspire.

Aspire is based at the Barton Hill trading estate and has been running for 10 years.

It provides employment in three areas, gardening and maintenance, painting and decorating, and window cleaning.

Mr Clegg said schemes like Aspire were needed to beat the financial downturn.

He said: "We need to nurture and support these social enterprises.

"These kinds of organisations, charities and voluntary groups often know more about what problems are in a neighbourhood than bureaucrats in Whitehall.

"I'm not pretending that coming to clean a few windows is going to change people's lives but as a national party leader I want to say there are solutions and I am a huge supporter of organisations like Aspire.

"There is no magic wand solution, unemployment in Bristol has nearly doubled in the last year."

Mr Clegg called for the government to scrap plans for a cut in VAT and instead invest money in programmes like Aspire.

Aspire currently has 20 people on placement and eight employees, but is hoping to secure further contracts through the council to get more people back into work.

Aspire's regional manager Paul Tipler said: "Mr Clegg was very easy to talk to, and it's very nice to get the publicity.

"But the proof of the pudding will be whether he can translate that increased profile into contracts for ordinary Bristolians."

Although Bristol City Council leader Barbara Janke was unable to attend the event, Mr Clegg lent his backing to her administration and said he hoped to meet her during the day.

He said: "There has been a complete transformation of politics at the local level.

"We pushed Labour down to third place in the elections last year.

"We have given the go ahead for a new primary school, we have cut council tax.

"After a prolonged period of infighting and shadow boxing this is a good example of what we can do if we get a majority in the June elections."