To begin with, I’ll just direct people here to the full text of the Coalition Agreement with the Conservative Party. If you haven’t read it yet, it might be handy as this entire blog post is basically me talking about it. So, without any further ado, my views on the deal.
Deficit Reduction
This section seems pretty tame, we have £6bn in spending cuts, likely coming through internal efficiency savings (my personal favourite would be scrapping internal purchasing in the NHS, but we’ll see), which is I sense more than doable without major hurt in terms of jobs or frontline services. Nice to see that reductions to the Child Trust Fund and tax credits for higher earners both made it in as well.
Spending Reviews
The biggest three items here are we’ve committed to the increase in the NHS budget and of course, Pupil Premiums, one of the most popular policies on the doorstep is in, as is restoring the link between pensions & earnings. We’ve also got a commitment on a new Strategic Defence & Spending Reviews, in which it seems the cost-effectiveness of Trident will be considered, which is what the Lib Dems wanted in the first place. It seems likely that unless we get multi-lateral disarmament, we will have for a period more some form of Nuclear Deterrence in Britain, but as to what form that will take, we shall see.
Taxation
We’ve got a commitment for raising the income tax threshold to £10,000, which again was one of our most popular policies on the doorstep, perhaps not as quickly as we’d like, but exact details as to how they’ll play out we’ll see in the Emergency Budget. But it should be the highest priority. Per-plane duty is also in and will be used to help fund the raising on the income tax threshold. Overall, the 10k threshold is the most important thing, especially in Wales and Ceredigion and it is very good we’ve gotten the Tories to back this.
Banking Reform
Cutting bank bonuses, a bank levy, improving the flow of credit to smaller businesses. We will also be trying to separate investment and retail banking, which should theoretically shield private citizens from another Credit Crunch style collapse. We’ve also agreed to hold off on the Euro for this Parliament, something that was in our Manifesto. All in all, some pretty needed banking reforms and I’m happy with this section.
Immigration
We’ve managed to arrange an end to the detention of children for immigration purposes, a major campaign we’ve tried to do. We’ve also agreed to work towards a mechanism for determining a cap on non-EU immigration, which to me sounds like it will be flexible, as opposed to the more arbitrary limit the Tories wanted. Again, seems fair although I’ll reserve judgement on the cap for now.
Political Reform
Here we’ve gotten much more than I though was ever possible from the Tories. We’ve progress to a fairer voting system for the House of Commons, but clearly we aren’t all the way there yet. We also have a deal on fixed term Parliaments and right of recall is also in, which is a major constitutional reform improvement. And of course we still have a committee to lay down the process for creating a partly or fully elected House of Lords. House of Commons reform and a solution to the West Lothian Question will be explored. Not too bad and certainly much better than I thought we would get, we just need it implemented now.
Pensions & Welfare
There’s an end to a compulsory retirement age, meaning people can work for as long as they chose and a slight increase to the default retirement age, there’s a commitment to fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policy holders. A unified welfare to work is also going to be created. No real opinion on this section to be frank though, perhaps someone closer to the age where this will affect you can voice their thoughts on this.
Education
School Reform seems okay to me, no real issues with it. It is however when we begin to talk about Higher Education that I get really worried. Whilst the aims seem acceptable to me, it is this line that worries me “If the response of the Government to Lord Browne’s report is one that Liberal Democrats cannot accept, then arrangements will be made to enable Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain in any vote.” My worry here is that if the Browne report recommends and increase in Tuition Fees, we’ll be forced to abstain. Although I’d imagine a good number of MPs may well rebel if that were to happen. We’ll see though.
EU
It seems we moved a bit further towards the Tories when it comes to Europe, lots about preserving our sovereignty and our legal system, but not quite enough movement on political reform of the European Union, but there’s nothing in here I can really object to.
Civil Liberties
This is an area where we seem to have had a lot of impact, the Freedom Bill is basically the same as was proposed by us, something the Tories agreed on anyways. Very happy with this section, especially ID Cards and defence of the right to protest and of course a clamp down on silly criminal offences.
The Environment
This section looks pretty good to me. I’m no expert on the environment, but again there’s nothing here that sounds weird to me and I’m very pleased to see a commitment to High Speed Rail investment, which can hopefully be partnered by improving existing service, particularly when it comes to rural rail services.
Conclusions
Overall, I’m pretty happy with this deal. It isn’t perfect, especially on Higher Education, but all in all, its a pretty solid deal and I think that Britain and Wales will be well served by it. It certainly isn’t a sell out deal as many have suggested and after my initial trepidation yesterday, I’ve now come around to this deal. This, I can live with.
- Greg Foster
Disappointed. Had the party stayed out of a coalition, then irrespective of whomever formed a minority gov, we could have influenced policy to a much greater degree by using our deciding vote on EVERY issue, not just 5 or 6.
If we were to stay out the Tories would have almost certainly called another election to gain a majority, which since no one else has the money to fight them they would have certainly have won leaving us with very little in the way of influence.
And you believe these things are all going to happen????? When did astute minds suddenly go soft about what Toryism really is based on??
The Tories are going to hang the LibDems out to dry…..simply because the Tory Party has to keep a very powerful section of its right wing happy, and it cannot afford, nor does it wish, to sell its own “babies” down the river. They want a majority next time without being hobbled by a bunch of soft humanists (and left wingers) like the Lib Dems. I imagine there is already some kind of secret deal amongst some of the Tory grandees and key grassrooters regarding a strategy for the final castration of LibDems. I voted LibDem….hoped it might be a kind of Obama vote….not again……as a Scot I will probably vote SNP as it seems that voting Labour is pointless….and the idea of being yet again ruled by a Tory and a Torified LibDem rationalising like mad over his temporary power is nauseous…..
We all hoped for an Obama like moment. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. Britain still needs a government and be pragmatic, what would you prefer to see, an unrestrained, unmoderated Tory Party going it alone, or the Liberal Democrats getting stuck in to make sure we get the best deal possible for the country?
Don’t forget, we have STV or even AV+, this will happen much more regularly, this is what the Lib Dems want, coalition and consensus. I was under the impression that was what the people of Britain wanted too, and end to boo-yah politics and for politicians to work together….. Then it happens and suddenly everyone’s pissed.
Also, I do think all this will happen, if it doesn’t, we’ll hopefully getting out of dodge pretty quick. This is essentially a programme for government and whatever the Tories long term scheme, they’re hardly going to try and screw us to the wall by not doing it, there’s a fair few of their policies in here too and they’d probably get more hurt by that than us.
Neither the Tories nor Labour have been able to quell their own rebellious elements…..This NewLabour form of ToryLibDem will be poisoned by worse splits because their basic ideologies differ (I think…but I am now beginning to wonder if class and old school have greater pull in this Clegg-Cameron Coalition than some of us realised). The Clegg and Cable Compromise parading as statesmanship, and being accepted by many as such, is a curious aberration. Lots of incredible wishful, and dishonest thinking……..and what looks like a suicide bid by the LibDems….could be heroic….but one imagines that the LibDems will simply be “put down” by the Tories…..great theatre….wonder if it will follow the structure of tragic drama….or if it will simply develop into farce and pantomime.
The “efficiency savings” as you so glibly put it means people’s livelihoods! Let me spell it out – £6 BILLION – that’s 6 with NINE ZEROS after it – £6,000,0000,000 – 6 THOUSAND MILLION POUNDS! You can’t save that kind of money by cutting the paper-clip budget or by reducing the mileage allowance for public sector workers. It means THOUSANDS of job losses in the public sector. And let’s not forget – it was the financial sector which took us into this recession; it’s now the public sector that’s paying the price.
Ceredigion doesn’t have a financial sector so we weren’t to blame for the recession. But we do have a large public sector which will be badly hit by the Tory-LibDem cuts.
You clearly missed where I outlined at least one major saving that could be made in the NHS alone, the scrapping of the Internal Purchasing System. I’ve no exact figures on how much that would save, but everything from paperclips to drugs has to be bought by one part of the NHS off of another. That’s a pretty big expenditure and far from encouraging a businesslike culture, its resulted in the NHS paying internally above market rate for a lot of items. The system either needs to be overhauled to balance that out, or scrapped entirely.
Will there be job cuts? Probably. I’m not going to deny that, but had you stopped to consider that thinking in the long term, these cuts might actually be beneficial? As far as I can tell, the entire middle management staff from the Old Local Health Boards have been retained, which surely must mean that in many places jobs are being duplicated. On a more local level, were the Council to turn out its lights every night in their new offices they would undoubtedly save a vast sum on their electricity bill, yet another area in which we can make efficiency savings.
And the financial sector is hardly riding this out unscathed, or perhaps you missed the Levy on the Banks (which I believe is also known as the Robin Hood Tax) which would contribute massive amounts of funding to government coffers over the next five years. Perhaps you also missed the part where we gained from the Tories the commitment to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000. In an area such as Ceredigion that will have a seismic impact, not just on the incomes of families, but also on the stability of local businesses, who will clearly benefit from an increase in people’s disposable income, no matter how small.
I am however confident that the vast bulk of these cuts will fall not in job cuts, but in internal efficiency savings, such as the one outlined above. But Llinos, please don’t get bogged down in your pettiness; all in all I think you realise as much as I do that this is a pretty good deal all told and especially for Ceredigion. Let us also not forget that we are talking about £6bn, from a total estimated public expenditure of £645bn (http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/d/pesa09_chapter1.pdf). It’s a pretty small slice of the pie, especially when you consider that the estimated increase from last year is much greater than that cut.
PS: Don’t use all caps.
Said like a true Tory!
You defend the Tory cuts as if it was your own party’s idea! Do you not realise that the Lib Dems weren’t advocating such savage cuts? At least not until they jumped into bed with the Tories!
I’m not denying that some of the policies are good. The £10,000 tax threshold seems a very good thing. The point you’re missing is that the £6,000,000,000 public funding cuts have not been properly costed (as the Tories admitted in the run-up to the election) and will undoubtedly lead to job cuts.
As for the suggestion that the “robin hood” tax will recoup money from the financial sector – don’t make me laugh! It will raise some funds for the treasury but won’t come anywhere near the totals that were used to bail out the banks. It raises the question why the public sector should be made to pay for the mistake of out-of-control financial institutions…
Thanks for writing that so it was easier to read. And I wouldn’t have said spoken like a true Tory. I’d have said it was spoken like a true rationalist. We’re talking about tax-payers money, that is something that we shouldn’t be inefficient with, regardless of the economic climate.
Also, I’d imagine that now we have access to the full “books” we’re looking very hard at how we can implement these cuts without job losses. A number of ministers, both Tory and Lib Dem have already said so and a number have also said that within their departments they are confident job losses can be avoided, or any that are, will occur through “natural wastage”. And what would you prefer, we sat back and did nothing? That seems to be what you’re advocating. Do absolutely nothing, on anything. Ever.
To reply to Llinos.
Yes, taken on it’s own, £6,000,000,000 is a pocket full of change. Factored into a £600,000,000,000 budget, it’s not a lot. If you had £100 in your wallet, could you spare £1 to buy a “Big Issue”? It’s that magnitude.
Any reasonable business would be able to save 10x that amount on that budget. Indeed many have cut expenses by 10% or more over the last few years. We’re only asking the public sector to do what the private sector already has done. Seems fair to me.
Who heard about making a commitment to make cuts through “efficiencies” without actually checking the books to see whether it’s even possible!
The Lib Dems criticised the Tories’ proposals in the run-up to the elections and yet you’re now defending them! Hilarious! You’re in a coalition with the Tories, but that doesn’t mean you have to defend all their policies!
Ceredigion is very dependent on the public sector. The Tory-Lib Dems policies will lead to a second recession here. And Mark Williams will do nothing.
Don’t claim to know what I think.
How can you look at the books whilst the government has them? Whilst you know things like Departmental Budgets, overall spending, Capital outlays, you aren’t going to know every single detail. Which is why the Tories said they were going to find £6bn of cuts. I actually agreed with that policy
And what would you do instead then Llinos, if you’re such an economic visionary? I’ve yet to hear you come up with a plan for reducing the deficit without cuts. I’ve yet to hear how you’ll pay for the £10k tax cut, a tax cut that will benefit thousands of families in Ceredigion!
And if you want to make your views known to Mark, why the hell are you doing that on here? Or are you just belly-itching?
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“You clearly missed where I outlined at least one major saving that could be made in the NHS alone, the scrapping of the Internal Purchasing System. I’ve no exact figures on how much that would save, but everything from paperclips to drugs has to be bought by one part of the NHS off of another. That’s a pretty big expenditure and far from encouraging a businesslike culture, its resulted in the NHS paying internally above market rate for a lot of items. The system either needs to be overhauled to balance that out, or scrapped entirely.”
The Internal Market in the NHS has already been abolished in Wales. Any cut in the NHS in England will have to be implemented proportionally here.
‘The Robin Hood Tax’ is something completely different to the “banking levy”, it’s a theorised tax on financial transactions. Suffice to say, it is NOT on the cards as part of the centre-right coalition. The banking levy itself has no detail at the moment but there is little evidence to indicate it will be substantial or meaningful.
You will basically be asking the ordinary people of Wales and Britain to pay for the financial crisis by accepting savage cuts to their public services.
Scrapping internal purchasing in England would still save money on a national scale; would it not? Thereby that would still be contributing towards the savings that we’re going to make. And Illtyd, seriously was anyone in the country under the illusion that we wouldn’t get hurt by the banking collapse. Its what happens when your economy revolves around one bloody sector. Does it mean we like it? No. But then we don’t like a lot of things that are unfortunately necessary.