Nick Clegg has said he wanted to "wring the necks" of bankers who threw Britain's economy into turmoil and forced the coalition to bring in austerity measures.
The Deputy Prime Minister delivered the strongly worded attack as he kicked off the Liberal Democrats' spring conference in Sheffield amid continuing fury over huge City bonuses.
He used a speech at a rally to admit that the first 10 months in coalition with the Tories had been "difficult". But he bluntly told activists they needed to "get used" to trouble now the party was in government.
"We've put down the placards and taken up the reins of power," he said. "It's a big change, but it is worth it. You can't do everything when you are in power, but you can't do anything when you are not. With power comes protest. We need to get used to it."
Mr Clegg directly addressed seething disquiet among Lib Dems over the decision to treble the maximum university tuition fee to £9,000, despite the party previously pledging to oppose any rise.
"I know how difficult this issue has been for all of us in this party," he said. "We didn't win the election and with two other parties determined to raise fees, we couldn't deliver our preferred policy."
However, he blamed the former Labour government for creating the problems, saying the Opposition was now "shouting from the sidelines" without offering any solutions.
Listing the Lib Dems' achievements in Government, Mr Clegg said the tax system was being made fairer and billions of pounds more was being directed to help schoolchildren from poorer homes. He also made a crowd-pleasing reference to May's referendum on changing to the Alternative Vote.
Questioned about Government action to curb City bonuses during an interview, Mr Clegg said: "It's a red rag to my bull. I am like anybody else: you want to wring the neck of these wretched people who behaved so irresponsibly and then we are now having to bail them out."
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The coalition had imposed higher taxes on banks, secured promises of higher lending and lower bonuses and was set to impose the world's toughest pay transparency rules, he said.
