What a Tory-Lib Dem government would do

"national interest"
Very funny.

Ho-ho!

Well done for getting in early Robert
I suspect the announcement is being held up until the six o clock news
The more things change the more they stay the same

Only when this Tory Lib alliance starts handing out the P45s to public
sector staff en masse shall we see what it's made of. How long before
Lib Dem backbechers, and Tories, let's hope, begin to protest that
large numbers of their constituents are now out of a job, and rather
unhappy?

There has been a lot of comment about the Tory plan to increase the inheritanc tax threshold, but I seem to recall that George Osborne had said some time ago that although this remained an aspiration, it was clearly not affordable in current financial circumstances. Dropping the plan is therefore hardly newsworthy, even if the labour supporters have been going on about it. Has the Liberal plan to introduce VAT on new housing also hit the bin?

Errr how about fail in the next 6 months when the Tories go back on their promises.

I wonder how Liberal Democrat voters feel about being sold down the river.

This is like democratic dictatorship. You vote for 4 crucial pieces of legislation and no less than 5 days after the election they're all dropped just so your party can gain power.

Coutries interests at heart? - don't make me laugh. Self interest is what drives these negotiations - the self interest of the power hungry.

On the bright side Labour won't get tarnished with implementing the 'harshest cuts in history' - and will probably romp home in the 2014 / 15 election - with a truly left agenda.

...and besides, it's much more fun bashing Tories...

The Lib-Dem manifesto said that raising the tax-free allowance to £10,000 would be paid for by removing tax-relief at the higher rate for pension contributions. Surely David Cameron couldn't have agree to this, it will be very interesting to hear how this is going to be paid for, taxes will have to rise somewhere.

I for one heartily endorse this agreement. The situation needed a willingness to work together and, yes, compromise, and certainly did not need myriad numbers of voters and party members standing on their principles and political dogma.

If the details are anything like have been suggested so far, the two parties will inevitably provide a degree of cross moderation, but with the obvious incentive that collaborative working will both keep the alliance together and be in the best interests of the country.

Well done to all.

Although I wished for a Conservative Government, a coalition with the Lib Dems was quite an exciting prospect as I had gained respect for Nick Clegg during the election campaign. The length of time taken to reach a decision one way or another, has begun to reduce that respect. I am not a political animal, nor are my friends, but today the outcome of the election was a talking point all round. It's time to decide or have another election.

Looks like the LibDems have been lured to the dark side. May the force be with you.

Tories incapable of serving anything but the 'vested interest'.

Well it's goodbye Scotland, goodbye Wales, goodbye Northern Ireland, goodbye much of the north of England. It's public sector hammertime!

The only problem is that if the tories cut public spending too quickly it will reduce aggregate demand and weaken the private sector. It needs to be cut briskly but not too fast in order that we can ween ourselves off the borrowing habit.

Thanks for all you've done Gordon, you've made some awful decisions and ultimately the person at the top is the one who pays (and so it should be).

Well - all of that sounds pretty good to me. Maybe the Lib Dems can smoothe the rough edges off Tory policy after all. Hopefully the Tories can remove some of the irrational aspects of Lib Dem policy too (e.g. local income tax, immigration amnesty, cash bank bonuses restricted to £2,500)

If this does go ahead, I predict it will fail within 12 months. The Liberal Democrat MP's will not be able to stomach the Tory spoon fed bile for much longer than that.

Jeez Robert - were you hid under the table as negotiations were going on.

Apparently Brown off to the Palace tonight to resign and the Tories are having a very important internal vote at 8pm.

(From the Evening Standard - not sure whether to believe as it is now a Soviet Propaganda sheet apparently.)

The Tories will break up the Lib Dems and then will do as they please so no change there if the Lib Dems form a coalition government with them. The Tories are for business but a Lib lab coalition government would be for the people.

This is, all in all, a pretty good result for Labour. Look at what they get:

* They get rid of Gordon Brown. Result!

* For however long the Tory/Lib Dem parliament lasts, they get to stand on the sidelines watching both their major opponents impose the bloodiest public service cuts since we've had public services. They would have had to make the same cuts in power themselves, but now it isn't their hands on the knife. Remember Mervyn King's observation last week that whoever had to preside over these cuts would make themselves unelectable for a generation.

* Come the next election, the Lib Dems will have ceased to exist as a meaningful electoral force. They have put a shotgun into their mouth and fired both barrels. There's already a considerable measure of disgust at Clegg being caught playing politics. Not only will they have had a hand in the economic carnage (see above), much of their natural support will have deserted them in disgust for getting into bed with the Tories. They won't even have PR to fall back on, because whatever promises the Tories have made to them in that direction will have been kicked into the long grass. The best they can hope for is a referendum on AV, which they will lose because AV isn't even PR and wouldn't give a significantly different result to FPTP (see the BBC website's seat calculator), so there's no point in anyone who believes in electoral reform getting behind it.

All Labour need do now is throw out the chancers like Mandelson and rebuild locally for the next election.

Best thing for Labour to be out of this. The Lib/Con coalition is doomed. I feel sorry for the radicals who must be feeling an utter sense of loss and betrayl. So many seats were lost by labour and the liberals cutting into each others votes and letting the Tories in. Let Cameron and Osborne bask in their glory. It will be short lived.

Great news for Labour supporters - an easy victory when this mess falls apart in the next year or two (and someone else to take the blame for some of the hard decisions that have to be made). I'm curious as to what will happen to the 50% tax rate and the Trident replacement program - just how much of a one-sided arrangement is this?

So we get to test St Vince Cable's mettle: this will be interesting.

One hopes that both parties will leave the ideology at home and come to work with their sleeves rolled up.

Dogma is not enough: what this country needs is what works and lots of it.

No doubt there will be mistakes and disagreements but it will take a lot to beat being in government for thirteen years and leaving a fiscal deficit of GBP 168 billion and a national debt of GBP 766 billion: more than twice the size of the one taken over from the previous government.

I don't envy them the job as it is going to be both unpleasant and quite difficult but they should make a better and fairer fist of it than just the Tories on their own.

The now possible Conservative / Liberal Democrat UK Government is ominous for us in Scotland and could cause a fairly swift Constitutional crisis in Scotland. When the Tories demitted office their spokeman, Laim Redmond vowed that when they got back into government in England, they would repeal the Scotland Act and do away with Scotland and run it from England. Thatcher decimated Scotland and the Scots have not forgotten the Tory promise. The Scots as a nation will have no say in what the Tories will do.

So, despite all of the fear-mongering talk of 'vote Clegg, get Brown' Lib Dem voters now know that voting Lib Dem gets Tory. The Lib Dems will find it harder than ever to garner those crucial crosses in the polling booths next time round. We may already have seen the high water mark of Liberal Democracy. It'll be downhill from here on in with - as previous posters have noted - the destruction of the Lib Dems by the Tory cabinet.

The new Government should realise how unsettled the electorate is, and if they are not careful, we can cause trouble!!!! We have so far, with the voting.......nuff said!

We await the mighty decision with held breath.

Surely nothing can go wrong in our beloved country now can it?

Anything is better than George Osborne having unfettered control of the public finances.

I give it 6 months before the Tories start blaming the Liberals in lobby briefings.

Clegg should have held out for STV. But of course the Tories and Labour love having a dictator-like power despite having less than 50% of the voters behind them.

I don't care how long a Lib-Con pact lasts.

The sight of labour politicians, unelected and elected, leaving Downing Street is sweet music after 13 years of spin and deceit

It's been a long goodbye but worth waiting for.

Gordon, don't forget your moral compass.

One advantage of the coalition is that it allows each party to drop those policies in the manifesto which were obviously unpopular without loss of face.

- The Tories will have no problem to drop the inheritance tax threshold increase.

- the Libdems will be very happy to drop the immigrants amnesty idea which was obviously not popular.

- Europe will not be an issue for the foreseeable future because it is clearly in Britain's interest to steer clear of the euro and bail-outs of Greece.

- The coalition can get early popularity by increasing the tax threshold to 10K. Easy one for the Tories to agree to.

One big shock for everyone over the coming weeks will be the frank disclosure of how bad the nation's finances actually are - something hidden by Labour from the public. It is in the coalition's interest to make it clear early on what a mess they have inherited.

It looks as if most of the LibDem MPs are going to end up on the payroll - that should make for quite a stable coalition. Once they've got their bums on the seats of ministerial cars they're not going to give that up in a hurry.

why doesnt cameron ask for another election right away ; given the greasy performance by clegg , and the desparate actions of labour to cling to office, cameron would get a proper mandate to tackle the deficit in faster manner than he will be able to do in coalition.?

More and more I am reaching the conclusion that the best chance for the future survival of Labour is to let David Cameron attempt to govern. By the time another election is called -- or more likely forced -- Labour's new leadership will be ready for them.

BBC Breaking News!

"Markets soar on news of a new Government!!"

BBC Breaking News!

"Markets crash the day after a new Government is formed"


I wish these money-men would crawl back into the caves they came form.

GC

But my strong sense is that both sides are up for giving it a go - in the "national interest", according to my sources, and not simply to taste the elixir of elected office



You get that tongue out of that cheek right now young man

6 billion a year in extra cuts?
How much is raising the tax threshold to 10k going to cost?...20 billion a year?
It's difficult to see how that will help the deficit, unless it takes a very long time to happen.
Petrol to double in price? VAT to double? Much higher upper level taxes?...unless we wait for inflation to do the job, we'll pay for it somehow.
Inheritance tax could be one of the greatest weapons in reducing the deficit.
Conservatives and Labour must surely know that proportional representation means that the country would be forever governed by the Lib Dems....with another party in tow. (A 3 party country with 2 parties diagonally opposed). Can't see that ever happening.
If Clegg had asked for Cameron to go.....would it have happened?

So in a proportional representation system we can't be guaranteed of getting anything that we vote for? Why is it a favoured system? Certainly only for the mp's whose jobs it grants.

3. At 5:27pm on 11 May 2010, nondom wrote:

Only when this Tory Lib alliance starts handing out the P45s to public
sector staff en masse shall we see what it's made of.


Not a moment too soon! The public services have mushroomed in the last 13 years while running a company has got a lot harder thanks to extra red tape. The sooner the p45s go out the better. Government's job is to provide a climate for job creation, not to just employ people. After what Grodon has put us though in the private sector it's about time the public sector caught up. I never met a public employee that took seriously that his of her wages were taken from the pay packets of workers on minimum wage as well as the rich. I used to have regular pay rises and the chance of a final salary pension, that was BG (before Gordon). I still have to pay taxes to fund the same for civil servants.

So it's vote Clegg get Cameron. The Lib Dems and PR are dead in the water; Labour will vote in a new, young, more acceptable leader and then it'll be back to two party politics. Goodbye Lib Dems.

Leave the Tories to form a minority Govt - then all their unpopular policies won't get voted through anyway and the reputation of the Lib Dems remains intact.

Yet another meaning to the expression "Realpolitik".
So the voters read the Blue and Yellow and Red parties' manifestos and then cast their well thought out votes.

The Blue and Yellow party then decide that if they are to be in power then they are going to have to forget some of their manifesto pledges.
Reasoning - they cannot both still hold to their pledges since some are simply incompatible.

End result - it doesn't matter who you voted for since those policies are not to be followed anyway. The parties have changed their colours.

Is this really how democracy works?
I suspect the politicians just want their 15 minutes of fame.
Get on with it. Then go. I also suspect they don't run the show anyway.
Some are odious too..

I'll give it 5 months.
Reasoning:
The new ones will want to at least get to know the place.
The old ones will want to show off in front of the new ones.
Obama will need to be shown around the place.
There will be a long summer recess anyway.

Whatever happens they need to make sure that they don't get stuck with the Olympics. Didn't they start in Greece?

The authoritarian elements in the Labour party (Reid, Blunket et al) scuppered any chance of a genuine if wobbly progressive coalition - but well done to Nick Clegg to draw out this rejection of the LD's libertarianism, a core principle that has always separated them from Labour. I would much have preferred a Labour-LD+ coalition but will have to make do! As to richard d's comment (28) I understand the tory reluctance to accept that their minority is just not big enough, but most of us are fed up being ruled by minorities, both Laboour and Tory. So give a Con/LD coalition a chance.

nondom wrote:
"Only when this Tory Lib alliance starts handing out the P45s to public
sector staff en masse shall we see what it's made of. How long before
Lib Dem backbechers, and Tories, let's hope, begin to protest that
large numbers of their constituents are now out of a job, and rather
unhappy? "

Damn right, the more unemployed peasants the better.

We can also get rid of the stupid minimum wage and start competing with India and China on low wages.

You know it makes sense!

34 robert

''The sooner the P45s go out the better'' ??

You appear to be making the rash presumption that only those we can
easily do without will be sacked.

You also appear to be making the rash presumption that those
receiving their P45s will just accept that they were a drain on the
state and move on, perhaps doffing their caps at their social
superiors in deference.

If the next election vote is carried out under AV or another form of PR then all this angst will have been worthwhile. These politicians have done what politicians do best....negotiate and struck a deal, that's their way no matter what colour or form they take. That's what they get paid for.

So lets get on and sort out this country with the representatives of 59% of the voting population at the wheel.

At last, some form a electoral mandate.

What a LibDem/Conservative coalition could achieve together would be extraordinary and improve life and democracy in Britain?

Vince Cable as Headmaster chancellor - amazing?

No, am not kidding - CONSERVATIVES need to pull in their right-wing banking horns and ASK 'who is my employer and who elected me to make or break my constituents lives'? Conservatives have a lot to learn from LibDems on humanity in our country today?

The days of the 'big beasts' of high principle in politics are long gone and we are left with the little men who can wear the badge but never be the sheriff.By the very way they handle themselves they prove that they are not capable of withstanding the forces at play and delivering real and equitable progress for the country in these troubled times. Measure by results will be key to the final analysis. Hope is no substitute for certainty however and certainty is the one thing we will not get from this cobbled together solution.New Labour took the Great out of Britain but this lot will throw away the key.

" At 6:31pm on 11 May 2010, richard d wrote:

why doesnt cameron ask for another election right away ; given the greasy performance by clegg , and the desparate actions of labour to cling to office, cameron would get a proper mandate to tackle the deficit in faster manner than he will be able to do in coalition.? "

...and then they'd get all the blame for the austerity that is about to be unleashed.

Why do it alone when you can blame your partner for all the bad stuff. Is that being too cynical.

Its a dark day, especially for the lib dems. This is the beginning of the end for them and their hastily arranged coalition. Bring on another election !

21. At 6:15pm on 11 May 2010, ingy wrote:

So, despite all of the fear-mongering talk of 'vote Clegg, get Brown' Lib Dem voters now know that voting Lib Dem gets Tory. The Lib Dems will find it harder than ever to garner those crucial crosses in the polling booths next time round. We may already have seen the high water mark of Liberal Democracy. It'll be downhill from here on in with - as previous posters have noted - the destruction of the Lib Dems by the Tory cabinet.

- Fair comment perhaps, but do you have a better resolution the situation, if so i'd like to hear it

Gosh! Robert, you mention in your report that Conservatives accept the LibDem no tax on the first £10K of workers earnings. Wow! This will benefit front-line workers who work shifts 24/7 and 365 days a year.
This will also benefit our armed services, majority of whom are underpaid and over-taxed.

Suddenly, Robert Peston, all females in our family like you slightly better today. Was a good news financial report so difficult after all?

I shall now be starting a Scottish stock market in preparation for independence.

Conserviberals

Incidentally, if you mix blue and yellow you get green. Very fitting for all the naive fools who think this is going to work.

"16. At 5:51pm on 11 May 2010, slothrop wrote:

This is, all in all, a pretty good result for Labour...."

yes, so it would appear, however..


"26. At 6:27pm on 11 May 2010, wykhamist wrote:

...One big shock for everyone over the coming weeks will be the frank disclosure of how bad the nation's finances actually are - something hidden by Labour from the public. It is in the coalition's interest to make it clear early on what a mess they have inherited."


Even closer to the mark - the Lib-Con parties will now line up and 'kitchen sink' the entire debt, PFI, unfunded pensions liabilities etc etc etc and label it as "Gordon's bequest", repeated ad nauseum to justify a scorched earth policy

This is probably the best realistic outcome of the election, considering our flawed system that virtually guarantees tory/labour success.

The tories are the best party to handle the economy and deal with our defense and national security. The lib dems are the best party to deal with civil freedoms and policies on education and health. I'm hoping that they both negate each others' weaknesses and compliment their strengths.

Whatever happens, it cannot be worse than Labour whose sole aim seems to have been to turn this country into some religious, police state dystopia.

If the pair of parties can accept a small rise in current spending in this financial year , the next 4 years could be managble for government debt due to the following.

1) Govt Financial allocations to Wales and Scotland Frozen at current levels in cash terms for at least years 2 - 3.

2) Govt Financial allocations to England local authorities capped at 1% rise max ( there all Labour so Labour gets the pain ).

3) Capital Expenditure on New Nuclear Power Stations , Crossrail , Trident deferred in whole or part for a few months into following financial years.

4) Continuing slip of pound vs dollar and rise in oil prices leads to more govt revenue from petrol taxes.

5) By 2012 some cash coming in from selling off olympic park sites.

6) Privatisation of Met Office brings in minor capital revenues , spreads payments for services over longer time , shifts headcount out of civil service.

6a) Civil Service staff recruitment reduced intake of new permanent staff / two or three quangoes abolished, pay rises limited to 1% for two to three years (see 12a below)

6b) 5% reduction in MP numbers for next election ( mostly in scotland / ne england).

6c) Planned withdrawal of UK Army from Afghanistan

7) Higher Rate starting band for income tax remains frozen at current level.

8) Lib 'Mansion Tax' becomes 2 additional Council Tax Bands , compensating local authorities for loss of main Govt Expenditure.

9) Working Families Tax Credit/ Child Tax Credit abolised.

10) Child Benefit made taxable.

11) Tax Relief for pension contributions limited to basic rate tax rate.

12) Starting Rate of income tax either raised to 9999 over 5 years in following increases 6999->7709->8454->9219->9999 or Allowed transfer of unused allowance to partner/spouse's earnings.

12a) Jobs Tax (NHI) rise possibly not implementing in 2011. Loss of income part balance by less Govt Expenditure on payrolls as a result.

13) One major london hospital closed and land sold off ( its got too many anyway )

14) State Invested Banks actually make profits - retail interest rates will prob rise to 5% + 2% for secured loans, allowing enough consumer customer profit , banks sold in whole or in part to arab or chinese investors.

15) Increase VAT to 20% , particulary hitting those now sold off banks whom cannot reclaim VAT.

16) By year 5 income tax basic rate reduced to 20% enough to buy electorate for another five years and Labour out again.


Questions

a) Whom will be Chancellor , Vince Cable Ok for now , but will be poss too old after 2013 ?

b) Will Labour be an effective opposition or will disolve into infighting , there does not seem to be a capable trustworthy effective leader among them

I've never thought very highly of Liberal Democrats, and clearly the whiff of power was too much for them to pass over, so they have gone even further down in my mind.
I hope you Liberal Democrat supporters that have helped give us a Tory Government realise what you have done, and reflect it as we all come to regret it.
National interest my foot! Megalomania more like.

Vote for nice smiley public schoolboy from the centre left party "with a conscience." Get lots more public schoolboys to look after themselves, the great and good. Thank you, Nick, and all Lib-Dems everywhere. We, the majority of the electorate who voted for "progressive" government of the centre-left, can go and eat cake, presumably.

Can I just raise the spectre of the Thatcher years? Great for the few; mass unemployment and civil unrest. I know someone (strangely a Tory) who has met some of your new government; the one word he used that struck me was - "disgusting"....

Dreadful day. How on earth the Lib Dems can support a party that is rabidly anti European, thinks it wise to reduce tax on the estates of a tiny number of the rich in a recession and wants to take economic demand out of the economy in the middle of a recession is beyond me. But then so are the Scotch Labour MPs who would not countenance being allied to the SNP in a wider progressive alliance (where I was born they were Scotch before they were Scots). A historic opportunity has been lost, we are governed by pygmies. Five years of being patronised by Cameron et al is all we have to look forward to. You think we would have learned a lesson after Blair not to trust shiny faced snake oil merchants.

34 Robert.....

Trouble is most of those public employees who will get their P45's teach our kids, staff the A and E's, work in care homes, clean the streets, bury the dead. It will be the bottom of the pyramid where the numbers go and the money is saved. This country will become even more a place of have and have-nots, of private affluence for the few a public squalor for the many. Taking demand out of an economy which is barely growing is the economics of the madhouse. I hope the Lib Dems can sleep at night ( the Tories stopped caring a long while ago)

Does not New Tory + Lib-Dem = New Labour ?

The same way Left-of-Centre + Left-of-Centre = Left-of-Centre.

Not a fag paper between any of them. What sort of choice was that ?

#52. whyperion

Inflation, inflation, inflation!

If the Lib-Dems allow the Tories to form a government I will never vote for them again. For all of their faults I'd rather have Labour than an Elitist select governing the country. I cannot believe that Clegg has found enough "common ground" with this party. Perhaps he needs to re-read his own manifesto, it is light years away from what the Conservative Party want. If it does happen, election within 6 months and another hung parliament - though without Gordon, can the Tories be sure of holding the gains? Horribe mess but the Tories will only make things significantly worse if history is anything to go by.... find me a recession that has been overcome by massive cuts? (Hoovervilles anyone?)

The one thing it will ensure is tht it is not blamed for the mess it inherits - it will be the glue that holds the coalition together. So, if they have to get the IMF in to audit the books and tell them what to cut they will.

Neither Cameron or Clegg will want to be blamed for putting the country back on the straight on narrow after Labour's failure.

The NHS and Schools will be protected - everythng else well....

... and what about changing the mode of election the LibDems are so on about?
A Lab-Lib coalition didn´t reflect the people´s will for a change because the Tories most of the votes. There is a basic tension in which the new goverment is put: Cutting the extreme debt on the one hand and a stimulate growth in the economy - a contradiction in itself which is never easy to dissolve. What approach Mr Cameron, the new prime minister, choses, we will know just in time when he introduces himself...

Compassion Must Be at The Heart of New Government: https://wp.me/pRHY4-Z

#20

Agree with much of what you say. We don't vote for them, they hate us and they will be vindictive. And like last time they will discriminate and protect jobs in the south at our expense: it will be deliberate, it will be unfair but at least we already know that their one-nation party rubbish is just words for the TV cameras.

Still can't believe that the UK electorate voted for a lightweight like Cameron. Spent his entire campaign about 'change' like he was Obama. The man is completely vaccuous.

I voted Labour last week but I do feel that the game has changed. Cameron is god's gift to Salmond and people will switch away from labour in the next Scottish elections. Voting Labour does make less sense now than it did a week ago. I also think that the Libs will pay a high electoral price for all their sanctimonious words and then opening up Scotland, the North and the Welsh electorates to the Tory budget. Nicol Stephen said this morning that he was concerned about this price for the pact with the tories and boy is he about to be proved right. Well done guys, looking forward to how you try and explain this one.

Lib-Con alliance....blah! Clegg and Cameron, Osbourne etc just a load of naive jokers playing politics. Ah well thats the end of Britain as we know it, misery loooms. Can the mirror please rerun the suns headline 'Can the last person to leave Britain pleae turn off the lights."

Can someone explain to me what the rationale behind 'Inheritance Tax' and 'Death Duties'is? What right does the government have to take x amount of someones estate when they die?

I have to say that I am really worried about the LibDem and Conservative coalition.Iam a local goverment employee and am worried about my pension.I am among the lowest paid in the country and goverment cuts are affecting the field i work in very badly.I am also worried that my bus pass will be taken away and I will not be able to afford the ever increacing bus fare that i will have to pay to get to work. I feel let down,and am so worried about the future.

The server is approaching the table with the bill....it will need to be paid....the tenure of the next government will be determined on the ability to avoid the cashier. Splitting of the charges will have little to do with who ate the most.

Well, lets see. I hope they'll goive it a proper go and stop with the pointless bickering like many posts on here.

10k threshold for income tax - why not? It benefits the rich anyway. No IHT increase, well poor Tony n Cherie will have to make do. Spending cuts - what did you expect, just look at all those incompetent middle-managers, hugely-paid and hugely-bonused by the taxpayer. People like the head of the Electoral Commission (100k pa for 3 days a week, and yet cannot do anything about the election cock-up except write another report). You can do a lot better than that for a lot less money. And these people tend to be in the richer south east, so the front-line staffing in the North should be left roughly intact.

As for PR - I was explaining the SVT to colleagues at work, considering some people have difficulty putting a cross on a ballot paper, the SVT will be far too confusing for them (I blame education, education, education). The Alternative Vote is a lot easier to understand especially when you elect a single MP per constituency. Its a good middle-ground between counting all voters intention and still having 1 MP. (even though I *love* the idea of being able to vote out cr*ppy MPs while still voting for my desired party)

No, the only problem they have now is not to get blamed for the next 5 years of economic difficulties while Brown sits on the opposite benches saying how great a chancellor he was.

We were looking at making 1/3 of our workforce redundant, on the back of the hung parliament and continued public sector paralysis.

Hopefully, there will now be some reform and savings in the public sector and we will not have to make so many people redundant.

We will need to coalition to work , and start to get rid of all the rules that stop people in the public sector doing their job.

So the new watchwords will be "Responsibility" and "Opportunity". Somehow I seem to have heared this before from the Tories and I already know what it is code for!

IF Clegg has guaranteed Cameron 4 years then only God can help us. But it will sound the death knell of the Lib-Dems at the neat election

#66. At 8:51pm on 11 May 2010, mischievousCheesy101 wrote:

"Can someone explain to me what the rationale behind 'Inheritance Tax' and 'Death Duties'is? What right does the government have to take x amount of someones estate when they die?"

The same right as they have to take some of your earnings off you every month. That's sort of the whole idea of tax.

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear......what have we done? get me my passport I'm off.

I think they will fail and be back for election before the year end.

Surely the alliance name (the real name) spells it all out....the CON-DEM party.

#67. At 8:53pm on 11 May 2010, pauline wrote:

"I have to say that I am really worried about the LibDem and Conservative coalition.Iam a local goverment employee and am worried about my pension.I am among the lowest paid in the country and goverment cuts are affecting the field i work in very badly.I am also worried that my bus pass will be taken away and I will not be able to afford the ever increacing bus fare that i will have to pay to get to work. I feel let down,and am so worried about the future."

Then do what an increasing number of us civil servants are doing. Join a union, get organised and come the big day - protest for all you are worth, disprupt the machine, bring the country to its knees. Only natural restraint will stop you - fight!

Pauline at No67:

I am a low earning private sector worker and have been worried about my pension for as long as I can remember. At least your pension is subsidised by taxpayers and has a tangible outcome regardless of market movements.

Do public sector workers receive a free bus pass?

I was just looking at the picture of Cameron outside No. 10 - I think the UK will rue the day they let that lot loose on the levers of power.

72. At 9:29pm on 11 May 2010, NorthSeaHalibut wrote:
'The same right as they have to take some of your earnings off you every month. That's sort of the whole idea of tax.'

Thats fine because I am paying tax towards the provision of things that are of use to me in my lifetime. When I'm dead I don't see wny I still have to keep paying out for the benefit of the living, I've done my bit..

77. Joseph wrote:
"I was just looking at the picture of Cameron outside No. 10 - I think the UK will rue the day they let that lot loose on the levers of power."

Looking at the picture? So you didn't hear the speech - without notes or autocue?

What, exactly, did you disagree with? Maybe it's the emphasis on 'responsibility' rather than 'entitlement' that so worries you.

I predict little or no changes to the BBC. For a while. But our Robert will no doubt change the tone of some of his presentations.

It will be the little things that will change first. Like moderating delays due to cuts in expenditure.
That will lead to blogs like this one becoming less popular.

#79 the_fatcat

"So you didn't hear the speech - without notes or autocue?"

Loads of politicians can do that. They practice. They cannot do anything else though. Do we want our country to be run by actors?

#78. At 9:52pm on 11 May 2010, mischievousCheesy101 wrote:
72. At 9:29pm on 11 May 2010, NorthSeaHalibut wrote:
'The same right as they have to take some of your earnings off you every month. That's sort of the whole idea of tax.'

"Thats fine because I am paying tax towards the provision of things that are of use to me in my lifetime. When I'm dead I don't see wny I still have to keep paying out for the benefit of the living, I've done my bit.."

Agree totally, unfortunately ever since some wag came up with the great idea of taking money off the masses, whether they could afford it or not, should be a national statute the system has been unfair and often borderline corrupt.

Read Frank Chodorov's "Taxation is Robbery" for a neat angle on it all. Subjective of course depending on your stance.

I wonder what the Tory trolls will have to say about our 'new unelected prime minister' - I suspect hypocriscy will prevent them seeing the similarities.
I wonder what Churchill would have thought....

At least the enemy is now in place - it's all coming together nicely.

Gordon confused matters by being a neo-liberal in a socialist's suit - now we have the true working class enemy and the battle lines are drawn.

I'm looking forward to the next few years - I feel they are going to be quite interesting....

Let us hope (for that is all that is left now) that the libertarian rabid extremists on the far right of the Tory party do not get power - and fro that we will be able to thank Nick Clegg - if on the other hand they do get control we can blame Nick Clegg.

Economically, we can I think look froward to a scrapping of the pointless and hugely wasteful computer projects such as the ID Card system. This itself will save billions. (Only if some other equally silly project does not take its place!)

Cameron is likely to scrap his tax giveaways to high earners in favour of the Clegg 10000 GBP personal allowance - at least for now - but I don't like to think where he will find the 16 bn it will cost.

I do not subscribe to the 'we are all doomed' view of the Tories - partly because Labour were if anything to the right of the Tories. The one certainty is that the NHS will be reasonably safe in Cameron's hands because of the service he personally experienced with his disabled child. I wouldn't be so sure about pensions and winter fuel allowances and especially free travel for the elderly and free TV licences for the over 75's.

A significantly more brutal approach to the disabled and those on benefits looks likely as is a similar treatment of the civil service (although both were always inevitable!) My guess is that councils will be very hard hit too. Interesting times....

Democracy? What democracy?
Representative democracy is a fallacy.

I'm so glad I don't participate in this shamble as I can't imagine how the Lib Dem voters feel now - betrayed? It's like voting for the sheep but getting the wolf instead.

Pretty disgusted that inheritance tax is not being raised at least a little, in line with house price inflation at least.

It means that many folk who bought homes at a modest price 10 years or more ago, fairly ordinary dwellings, still can't bequeath their homes to anyone without paying this most despised of all taxes.

I'd hoped the Tories could deal with it.

79. At 9:54pm on 11 May 2010, the_fatcat wrote:

"What, exactly, did you disagree with? Maybe it's the emphasis on 'responsibility' rather than 'entitlement' that so worries you."

Don't preach responsibility when you think having Government is a good idea. Only anarchy promotes true personal responsibility - your 'responsibility' has just entered number 10 and will now be telling you what to do with your life.

If you had turned up the volume on your TV then you would have heard we protesters outside - can't remember the last time a prime minister was booo'ed into office - can you?

76. At 9:34pm on 11 May 2010, Clinterous wrote:

"I am a low earning private sector worker and have been worried about my pension for as long as I can remember. At least your pension is subsidised by taxpayers and has a tangible outcome regardless of market movements."

Didn't you know - your private sector pension is also subsidised by the taxpayer - who do you think are the biggest holders of financial stocks and bonds which the Government have propped up recently?
Private pension shemes.

Hypocrisy anyone?

81. At 10:10pm on 11 May 2010, prudeboy wrote:

"Loads of politicians can do that. They practice. They cannot do anything else though. Do we want our country to be run by actors?"

the_fat_cat is happy to be ruled by anyone that he thinks 'he is one of' - however he will eventually find out that he is one of us.

This is the dilemma of the petit bourgoisie - they believe they are members of the ruling class - but when crisis comes (or more accurately the paying for that crisis) - they always find out exactly who they are.

All of you get a life
Labour always wreck the economy, all they know is spend & tax
Tories sort the mess out mucho pain for all of us but we end up with a well managed economy
Lib Dems promise much but cannot do the numbers
Lets just see where this goes it might actually work
It cannot be any worse than leaving Brown & Darling in charge, surely ?

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Brownwatch t = 0.

I Fear for our future with these vultures, I was no supporter of the Labour government over the last 13 years either.

I agree with writings, 6 months and it will fall apart, Milliband and co wil ...............

well, the lib dems certainly won't be so popular in the next election, which should be soon because this tory-libdem coalition will never work. I think voters across Britain may have made things worse without even realising it. Maybe between now and the next election, labour can sort themselves out because I don't want another tory government and I now hate the liberal democrats!

#83 writingsonthewall. You may have the working class enemy in place, but where is the working class? Most likely you will find that they have been securitized, monetized, and virtualized.

How stupid can the Lib Dems be? The Tories have agreed to give them a referendum they cannot hope to win and they fall for it. Election in October Anyone?

Welcome Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg, I wish you well.

You have chosen to drink from a poison chalice.

I fear that neither of you have the charisma or leadership qualities to lead us from the abyss. The 'markets' will be licking their lips in anticipation to bankrupt this country sure in the knowledge that out there, in the wider world, all the other 'leaders' are just sheep as well.

I can not think of one person who has a vision or the personality to see this western world mess cleaned up.

What a farce.

Thank God. As a former union man and old Labour supporter, having voted New Labour in '97 in the misapprehension that Tony was a good a man, I am now so relieved to see the back of this foolish, irresponsible and spendthrift shower. I, perhaps naively, believe that the National interests are at the forefront of this alliance. I just hope the libDems have the stomach for the fight and that they assist in savage cuts across the public sector. NHS, education, criminal justice, and all the many and varied quangos that have erupted in order that half-qualified New Labour cronies can enjoy a comfortable well-paid job. Sharpen those knives guys, it is in the country's interests.

it will all end in tears well before the end of the scheduled parliament.
It has left me in tears because there is now fighting even before what the agreement has being announced.

And how will it work when they hate each other? Political speaking that is. Is this what we, the voter wanted? well yes, being british we do like to cause a bit of a fracas then standing to the side to see what happens.

JonD wrote:
Best thing for Labour to be out of this. The Lib/Con coalition is doomed. I feel sorry for the radicals who must be feeling an utter sense of loss and betrayl. So many seats were lost by labour and the liberals cutting into each others votes and letting the Tories in. Let Cameron and Osborne bask in their glory. It will be short lived.


Spot on ! The liberal democrats should and could have won more seats realistically but when the crunch came down to it, many waivering voters choked and voted Tory instead especially in marginal Lib/Con seats. The result was more Tory seats. So they may have managed to get some parity through deals with Tories but it will never be a marriage made in heaven although I suspect it is the right one for a stable parliament. Cameron will have no problem showing strength in deficit reduction, his test will come in dealing with other issues

"I can not think of one person who has a vision or the personality to see this western world mess cleaned up"

There are a mere 6 billion to choose from. Perhaps your sights are set too high?