Willie Rennie takes up Bedroom Tax issue with Danny Alexander

"I am in constant dialogue (with the UK Government) because I've gathered evidence myself, I've seen people who are going to be affected by this. I'll be working to make sure people are not hurt."

So said Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie about the problems associated with the so-called Bedroom Tax on yesterday's Sunday Politics Scotland.  In April, Housing Benefit will be allocated on the basis of the size of properties you are judged to need by a number of pretty inflexible and unfair criteria. For example, a divorced dad who has a spare bedroom for when his kids come to stay will lose out. As will disabled people who need a spare room for carers or equipment. And then there was the case raised at PMQs last week about a mum who stands to lose out because her son is serving in Afghanistan.

I was Willie's caseworker when he was MP for Dunfermline so I know a fair bit about how he works. He's very good at understanding the practical realities of policies so I expect that he will have given ministers real evidence and also some reasonable, sensible and helpful recommendations as to how they should proceed to resolve the problems this measure creates. In the same way he's worked constructively with the SNP on minimum alcohol pricing and the budget, he'll be working with UK ministers to try to get them to change things to help vulnerable people.

It's really important that these measures get changed. Even if it were possible for some people to move into smaller properties, it's not as if councils and housing associations have them to hand out. Because of earlier cuts to Housing Benefit, a lot of the new build one bedroom flats in the private sector are out of reach to someone on a low income so there is, literally, nowhere for them to go.

Those who are going to be affected by this should know that they have Willie on their side. I would expect his views to be well received Liberal Democrats in the Government, too. Let's just hope that that's enough to make a difference before it's too late.

You can see the whole Sunday politics report and debate here.

I just have to remember that the Downing Street press conference was not for my benefit...

Most people like politicians who behave like grown ups, governments where they spend time getting things done rather than fight with each other. 

To be fair, I like that too. And for all our worries about some of the things this Government does, Liberal Democrat heads know that it's much more functional than the last Labour lot, who spent more time at each other's throats, virtually from the off in 1997 than actually doing anything useful.

My head is mostly proud of Nick Clegg (sort yourself out on secret courts and welfare, Nick, and I'll be able to drop the mostly) for leading us into Government, getting our major policy priorities enacted and doing a mostly good job at holding the Tories back. 

My heart gets a bit jittery and scared whenever it sees him and David Cameron look too chummy together. This, I suggest, is not only an entirely appropriate emotion for a Liberal Democrat, but also not incompatible with wanting the coalition government to succeed and do well. These appear contradictory emotions. They are. Nobody ever said this rollercoaster ride was going to be easy and uncomplicated. 

Their cosy little press conference in Downing Street today was not, then, for my benefit as a Lib Dem activist. It was for the wider public who care about jobs and the cost of living and what's going to happen to their parents when they can't live independently any more. Oh, Liberal Democrat activists care about this kind of stuff too. We don't live in a bubble where we're sustained by hot air generated by discussion about electoral systems. Honestly. We just see it from a slightly different perspective where we can see all the electoral casualties behind us and the minefield ahead. It wasn't for Peter Bone's benefit either. He was well upset on BBC News Channel this morning, bemoaning the huge influence the Liberal Democrats have on this Government. 

Nick did a great job outlining where we've done well - Steve Webb's pensions triple lock which has led to the pension going up by over £7.50 in two years, cutting income taxes for those on low and middle incomes, the Green Investment Bank, investing Government money to boost the green economy, the youth contract and apprenticeships. He went on to outline what we will deliver on parental leave and the like. Why, oh why, no mention of mental health, though? Aargh!

Where I was less happy was where was using his carefully crafted "stronger economy in a fairer society helping people get on in life line" as a strapline for the Government. It doesn't seem right to put all our narrative on a Government where we don't win all the battles. It's ok to say that's what we've brought to the Government but not give away what he thinks our identity is.

Have a look at the whole mid term review here. I haven't read it all yet - a teenage essay crisis and a list of Spanish words to cram for tomorrow has kept me busy on homework duty this evening - but two things I did notice earlier. There is no specific mention of closed material procedures. That may mean nothing, but it may mean that we have some wiggle room. And, the bloody Tory marriage tax break is back. Whether it's there just to save their face and it won't come to anything, I don't know. I hope so. But the fact that it is there is pretty vomit inducing.

By the way, I can't make up my mind who made the bigger idiot of himself today, Quentin Letts from the Daily Mail, or David Cameron. Letts asked a question about whether the Government was dumbing down universities in pretty dumbed down form, using the word swivel-eyed to describe someone And Cameron, who should never be allowed to talk about Scotland, got his referendum campaigns wrapped round his ears and called the pro-union campaign the Yes campaign. Then he called it the Alistair Darling campaign like the Tories weren't part of it. I truly despair.

Nick Clegg needs an occasional kick up the backside...

Ooh, it's all kicking off at Liberal Democrat Voice today as two daily editors, Paul Walter and Nick Thornsby debate the Coalition, the reshuffle and Nick Clegg's leadership. Paul argues that he can't support the Coalition or Nick Clegg's leadership any more because of David Laws' renewed high profile role and the Tories' promotion of Hunt and elevation of the notorious Lord Ashcroft to the Privy Council. 

I've made a comment there that I thought was worth re-posting here. Do come and join in the debate. 

Here's what I think about Nick and his leadership:

Ok, I’m going to stick my oar in and say that I am 100% behind Nick’s leadership.

That’s not to say that I think his performance has been flawless. Mistakes have been made that could and should have been avoided and he needs to make the effort to re-connect with his party’s activists. I had my own moment of fury on the reshuffle – I am severely unimpressed that our white, middle class, male, privileged team decided just to hand the equalities brief, from which Lynne Featherstone was doing such marvellous work, to the Tories. That ranks high on my short but significant FFS list – the things the Coalition has done that I can’t live with.

We are in Government at a really rubbish time. Even at the best of times, when we were in Government in Scotland, when we were implementing stacks of ground-breaking Liberal Democrat policy and had shedloads of money, the Party and the Holyrood team’s relationship was fraught with tension. Now we’re in Government during the worst period of economic trauma since the 1930s. I’ve recently read Alistair Darling’s book Back from the Brink and while I disagree with some of the decisions he made, I’m not sure I could have come anywhere close to coping with the dire economic shockwaves which were and still are going around.

I just think what would have happened if we hadn’t gone into coalition. We’d have had another election within 6 months which the Tories would have won and they would right now have already done things like cut housing benefit for all under 25s. The Human Rights Act would be in tatters and heaven knows what our relationship with Europe would be like. And children would still be locked up in Yarl’s Wood. Oh, and all the nasty web snooping stuff that the Liberal Democrats have insisted on further scrutiny under the liberal-hero eye of Julian Huppert, would le law now. Probably with Labour support.

When there’s no money, we have given low earners a tax cut, when the Tories would have prioritised rich dead people, Nick has led magnificently on mental health and the pupil premium, We’ve had the biggest ever cash rise in the state pension and Nick personally insisted on benefits going up in line with inflation last year.

On David Laws, one of the values we hold dearest is rehabilitation. David has taken his punishment, acknowledged and shown remorse for what he did – which was motivated purely out of a desire to protect his privacy rather than for personal gain. Never forget that had he been open about the relationship at the time, he could have claimed pretty much double the cost. He has atoned and is not going to re-offend. Is it therefore the liberal thing to keep him out in the wilderness? Every Lib Dem who’s gone on the media this week, on any phone in, has had a hard time from the tabloid reading public about David. We should not give a monkey’s. It may not be the popular thing, but it’s the right thing to do. He’s done his time and he clearly has the skills to do the job that he’s doing, however weird the combination of nukes, kids and jobs in his portfolio.

I am very encouraged by Ryan Coetzee’s appointment to replace Richard Reeves. This guy is a political street-fighter, not a policy guy and I expect a much more robust media strategy.

We Lib Dems are in a tough place at the moment. We aren’t making the most of our leader’s talents as I wrote last week. I was livid that we didn’t play to his strengths when he came to Scotland.

Nick Clegg’s current approval ratings are nothing to write home about, especially in Scotland. If we keep wasting opportunities to show off the real Nick, he will continue to be depicted as the bogeyman in London. Scotland has two young, talented, passionate, radical Liberal Democrat leaders. Scots know that Willie Rennie has not been shy in taking on the SNP establishment, supporting equal marriage and highlighting Alex Salmond’s links with Murdoch and how he’s panda-ed to China over human rights. It’s important they have the chance to learn more about Nick’s progressive, liberal, ideas and actions. They will find more common ground than they expect.

I’ll also leave you with some advice I had for him in March about how he needs to reconnect with the party.  More than any other, we rely on our activists being motivated enough to get out on the doorsteps. 

The last thing on earth I can imagine they want to do is to come out and soothe a scratchy party that they think doesn't understand them, but the more remote they become, the wider the gulf will get. Certainly, they can't be telling us the awful internal secrets of day to day Government life, but they can reassure us when we get a bit worried. For our part, we need to show them that we appreciate the things they are getting through and imagine what it must be like to have to deal with the likes of Eric Pickles, Theresa May and IDS on a daily basis.

In turn, we activists need to try to walk a couple of miles in his shoes. He spends his life doing the best he can to make Liberal Democrat values happen while having eyes in the back of his head to check that the Tories aren’t doing silly things.

If we change leader now, I’ll bet you anything that within 3 months, even the most well loved party darling would not have as high approval ratings. Being in Government is tough. We’re only going to make it tougher if we dump Nick. He needs the occasional kick up the backside, as all leaders do, but he deserves his position.

Reshuffle guesses

I thought I'd dust off the old crystal ball and take some shots in the dark about what might happen in the Cabinet Reshuffle. I have absolutely no basis in fact, whispers or otherwise for what I'm about to say, but I thought it might be fun.

Let's take the Liberal Democrat contingent first:

Nick Clegg - He'll stay as Deputy PM with responsibility for political reform. Let's face it, he actually did deliver on the AV referendum. Sadly the Yes campaign was so pathetic that we didn't get any reform in place. And he tried on Lords reform but was stopped in his tracks by two conservative parties.

Danny Alexander - interesting. If I were Nick, and I cared about Danny's political future which I assume he does, I might be inclined to shift him, to get him away from the job where he always has to say no to people and make unpopular announcements. Chief secretary is a bit like being the treasurer of a campaign. You have everyone in the whole world asking you for money which you don't have. No matter how good you are at your job, 

What to do with him, though? Not any of the jobs which are devolved in Scotland, so not health or education or justice. He could do a straight swap with Ed Davey at Climate Change. If he did that, he could cover himself in lots of nice Liberal Democrat green action and recharge his progressive credentials.

The one issue with him at Climate Change is that he'd then effectively be the Secretary of State for wind farms. He does have a gorgeous, unspoiled highland constituency, mind you ,but the Scottish Government has responsibility for wind farm planning. However, he might have ideas about how you deliver renewables while preserving the countryside, so it might work. 

He'll most likely stay where he is, though. 

Michael Moore - at Christmas I might have said very sadly that his coat was, as they say up here, on a shoogly peg. The Scotland Bill looked dead in the water as Labour and Tories at Westminster and the SNP at Holyrood whinged about it. He was consistently on the bottom of Liberal Democrat Voice's popularity list. 

Since then, his decency and reasonableness have won the day. He started the year with a supreme showing in the Commons which caught the SNP on the back foot. He delivered the Scotland Act with precisely none of the six changes the SNP Government had demanded. If he were to be moved or punted out, I would be so furious. He's done a job which has required skill and diplomacy extremely well. I sometimes wish he'd be a little less cautious and just take the obvious opportunities to deliver a crushing one liner, but that probably means I'm not as grown up as he is. I think he will stay where he is because he's the guy to deliver an agreement with the SNP in time on the referendum process.

Quite a few people think he'll be moved to make way for Alistair Carmichael or Jo Swinson. Alistair is the perfect whip, so I can't imagine Nick letting him move from there even if he wanted to. Jo is just settling into her role as PPS with an overview of Government policy. I think this is a good and sensible for her to be so I'd kind of like her to stay there. She could go to Equalities at the Home Office

Ed Davey - there are three possibilities with him. A swap with Danny at the Treasury staying where he is, or going back to BIS to replace Vince. More about that idea later. 

Vince Cable - now, he's the most popular guy in the Liberal Democrats at the moment. at least according to Liberal Democrat Voice surveys. I adore Vince like everyone else, but I think that anyone who thinks he'd still enjoy such universal acclaim if he were leader is naive in the extreme. However, it would be a very foolish Deputy Prime Minister who turfed Vince out of Cabinet, so there's two options for him. If Osborne moves away from the Treasury, Vince might get the Chief Secretary's job. That would leave Ed Davey to come back to BIS and Danny to Climate Change. 

Now for the Tories. There are a few people I want to see propelled to the back benches so fast their feet don't touch the ground. Sayeeda Warsi is a liability. What has she actually contributed to the Government? If she goes, Cameron will need to appoint a new party chairman. He could do worse than bring in someone like Esther McVey to that role. It would be a lot of fun for us, however, if he appointed Jacob Rees-Mogg, posher than posh itself, to lead what's supposed to be a modern Conservative party. I can dream, can't I?

Andrew Lansley has made a right cod of health and needs shooing out the door for a fresh face. This might well be Justine Greening, likely to be ejected from her transport role to let in someone who loves building runways at Heathrow.

The third person I want rid off is the Tory Chief Whip, Patrick McLoughlin. We have delivered votes on things that our lot have found horribly difficult cos it was in the national interest that we voted that way, to deliver a stable government at a pretty crap time to be in power, let's be honest.The Tory chief whip could not even get his lot to vote for members of the House of Lords to be elected. He needs to be replaced by someone who actually has some powers of persuasion. Rudimentary ones would be a start.

Oh, and while we're at it, Lord Strathclyde can sling his hook as well.

This has become less like guesswork and more like a wishlist. I reckon Warsi and Lansley are out on their ears. Jeremy Hunt should be with them, but I suspect he'll hang around because the Tories like him. 

Now, what about David Laws. Nobody thinks he won't get a job. But if he does, one of ours has to go. It can't be Lynne or Sarah who have both done amazing work. He may get to attend Cabinet but come in at Minister of State rank to float about doing useful stuff. I'm not sure I want him writing economic policy, to be frank, but because he talks Tory, he could do a lot to make the Government work better.

I still haven't said who I'd get rid of. A few months ago it would have been Paul Burstow over the health reforms, but he has redeemed himself with good work on social care and mental health. I'm not entirely convinced that Lord McNally has added that much value to the Government so I guess it would be him.

So, come back here when it's all over and have a good laugh at how wrong this all is.

Have the Liberal Democrats really cut Income Tax?

Well, yes, of course we have. And it is us - remember, Tory manifesto = tax cuts for rich dead people and those in possession of a marriage certificate, Lib Dem manifesto = tax cuts for lowest and middle earners. As Louise Phillips points out in the Huffington Post, we've managed to achieve that without giving way on Tory plans to cut tax for the rich or the married.

The amount of money you can earn before you start paying tax has gone up by £1000 since the Coalition took office in May 2010, giving basic rate taxpayers around £200 a year back in their pockets and taking 91,000 Scots and almost a million  people across the UK out of paying tax altogether. But do people really know about that?

Just because it's been written on every Lib Dem leaflet (and if it hasn't been on yours, I seriously want to know why), doesn't mean that this huge achievement has permeated the public consciousness. We're not alone. I've just been reading Jodi Kantor's book, The Obamas and she wrote about similar problems experienced by the Obama Administration. America's low and middle earners had no idea he'd cut taxes, either.

The thing is people don't feel richer. Far from it. Although inflation is down from its 5.2% high, prices have risen by way more than incomes, there's been the VAT increase (which Labour would have done, too. No choice after they cocked the economy up as spectacularly as they did) and fuel and energy price hikes to contend with. There's no way people feel like someone's just handed them a couple of hundred quid because it's been swamped.

That money, though, may well have paid for, say, a month's Council Tax, or filled a wee Micra with petrol five times, or a month and a bit of a train season ticket, or a couple of week's groceries. I wonder if we need to show what we have effectively paid for rather than talk about the abstract of money back in your pockets. People just don't feel that there's any there.

We need to get people to think what £200 means to them and to realise they'd have had to find that if it hadn't been for us. And then we need to get them engaged in campaigning for the extra £750 we are trying to win for them if we get the tax threshold raised to £12,500. Getting this petition on the No 10 website to 100,000 signatures would be a start, because that would secure a parliamentary debate on the issue.

People in work have had an extra £200 from us - we need to make sure that they can visualise what we did for them.We've not won that battle yet. I am not yet sick to death of hearing Liberal Democrats talking about it on the tv, although they certainly seem to be making more of an effort. They get extra Brownie points from me if they can do so without using that horrendous phrase "hard working families" or any variation of it.

Do you have any ideas about how we can better promote what we are doing in Government generally?

Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce to be charged with perverting the course of justice

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, has just announced that Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne and his former wife VIcky Pryce will be charged with perverting the course of justice.

They will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday 16th February.

It is expected that Chris Huhne will now step down from the Cabinet.

Keir Starmer emphasised that Huhne and Pryce have the right to a fair trial and that nothing should be said or reported that could influence that.

He said:

All the available evidence, including the new material, has now been carefully considered by the CPS and we have concluded that there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce for perverting the course of justice.
The essence of the charges is that between March and May 2003, Mr Huhne, having allegedly committed a speeding offence, falsely informed the investigating authorities that Ms Pryce had been the driver of the vehicle in question, and she falsely accepted that she was the driver.
Accordingly, summonses against both Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce have been obtained from Westminster Magistrates Court and those summonses will now be served on them. They are due to appear in court on 16 February this year.
Can I remind all concerned that Mr Huhne and Ms Pryce now stand charged with criminal offences and that they each have a right to a fair trial. It is very important that nothing is said, or reported, which could prejudice their trial.

His full statement can be found here.

We will bring you news of further developments as they come in.

This was originally posted at Liberal Democrat Voice.

Paul Waugh gives more examples of Lib Dems stopping Tories doing their worst

It will come as no surprise to anyone that the Lib Dems favour tax cuts for the poorest over the rich - that's why we've taken almost a million people out of tax in Government with the raising of the tax threshold - or that we don't want to see employers given the right to fire people at will, but it's good to see that journalists such as Paul Waugh recognise it.

In an article titled "The Lib Dem brakes are still on the coalition" Waugh gives three examples just from yesterday where our influence had stopped the Tories doing their worst.

"No wonder," he says, "that Conservative backbenchers are frustrated."

Remember that as you hit the doorsteps and people express their concerns about the coalition - we have a lot to be proud of and things would be a lot worse without us there.

Nick Clegg stops the Tories giving employers right to fire at will

The Guardian reports today that Nick Clegg has put his foot down to stop the Tories from proceeding any further with the daft recommendations in the report by a venture capitalist, Adam Beecroft.  The Beecroft plan would have made it very easy for employer to fire people  they decided were underperforming.

Now, frankly, if any of our lot had touched these ideas with a ten foot bargepole, my howls of rage would have been audible from the International Space Station. Beecroft's ideas are just a charter for employers to abuse their staff, manage by intimidation and fear and make life very unpleasant for everyone. I don't, therefore, deliver any special praise to Nick for stopping this. It's the very least I would expect from the leader of a party which wants to protect ordinary people from the abuse of power.

It is indicative, though, of  how the Tories think. They would clearly have been quite happy to implement some version of Beecroft's ideas. Their mindset is focused on making the rich richer rather than seeing thing from the  ordinary person's point of view. If they had their way, we'd have unlimited working hours, no sick pay and a treat 'em mean, keep 'em keen culture which would be horrendous. And guess who would be the first to be fired - people with family and caring responsibilities, who are more likely to be women.

We don't see things like that - we value people, we want to nurture them and we recognise that they don't work in a vacuum. There are times when even their best won't be good enough if they have a difficult situation at home. . If there are issues with performance, we think that a bit of effort and understanding on the part of the employer should be able to turn things around. If that doesn't work, then it is already easy enough to fire someone.

What this episode shows is what the Tories governing alone would be like. Who would stop them not just  salivating at the thought of people being fired at will but actually making it happen? Nobody. We'd be sat on the opposition benches powerless to do anything about it. If we hadn't gone into full coalition with the intention of staying there for the full five years, the Tories would have held another election in October and would have had a majority on their own. It might have been a small one - in which case the Tory right, like Nadine Dorries, Peter Bone and Julian Lewis would be key influencers on Government policy.  Frankly, I'd much rather our lot were in there to moderate the Tories, and I suspect most people in this country feel the same way.

We've already influenced NHS and welfare reforms, stopped the Tories from abolishing the Human Rights Act, made sure that tax cuts went to the lowest paid and not rich, dead people, stopped the Tories wasting a fortune on a tax break for married couples and introduced a pupil premium. Pension increases and restoring the pensions/earnings link are Liberal Democrat, not Tory ideas.

Yes, it's not perfect - and on employment rights, I'm not at all impressed that the time limit before people have  recourse to an employment tribunal is being doubled - but we are doing a lot of good. We really need to stand tall and be proud of those achievements.

What would David Cameron have answered on women if it hadn't been for the Liberal Democrats?

When Labour MP for Ashfield and former GMTV political correspondent Gloria de Piero asked David Cameron  at PMQs last week why women were "significantly more negative about the Government than men", the PM gave this reply.

When you are making difficult spending decisions and have a difficult economic situation, and household budgets are under huge pressure from things like petrol prices, food prices and inflation, clearly, that impacts women. The Government want to do everything they can to help women and that is why we have lifted 1 million people out of tax, the majority of whom are women, and that is why we are putting much more money and time into free nursery education for two, three and four-year-olds. That is also why, for the first time, we have agreed that women working fewer than 16 hours a week will get child care. And we do not just care about this issue at home: because of what we are doing through international aid, we will be saving more than 50,000 women in childbirth around the world.

What saved this being a hotch potch of patronising assumption and platitude was three clear achievements on child care, raising the tax threshold and nursery education. All of these ideas were brought to the table by the Liberal Democrats. He could, of course, also have mentioned the work done on body image issues for girls under the auspices of the Campaign for Body Confidence by Lynne Featherstone and Jo Swinson.

He could of course also have mentioned the women who have benefitted from the restoration of the pensions/earning link and Steve Webb's triple lock on pensions which will avoid the paltry rises we saw under Labour. Yes, there have been issues with the raising of the Pension age - but £1 billion was found so that the maximum any woman has to work more than she planned will be 18 months instead of two years. And who bothered to try find that extra money? The Liberal Democrats and Jenny Willott in particular. As someone whose husband has found, five years from retirement, that he'll have to work an extra year, I sympathise with those women - but I also accept the need for the change.

Without the Liberal Democrats to come up with ideas, if Cameron had been asked that question, his cupboard would have been well and truly bare. This is not an easy time to be in Government, but we are doing what we can to put our values into action.

Pickled priorities - fixing something that ain't broke while the poorest struggle

I haven't had much time for blogging these last few days, but rest assured that I have been frothing at the mouth over the announcement by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles that he's found £250 million to enable Councils in England to restore weekly bin collections.

That's a phrase I really don't like anyway. Every house has a bin emptied every week. That means that the bad bin, the landfill bin, gets emptied once a fortnight. And people complain about it like mad. Let's get it into perspective, though. The worst that can happen from the fortnightly landfill bin collections is that a household is mildly inconvenienced. Nobody dies. Nobody, despite predictions of everything from rats to bubonic plague in the right wing press, gets ill.  That inconvenience should in most cases act as a spur for people to think carefully about what they're throwing away.

I am not aware of complaints coming from people who make the effort to sort their recycling. We could do with a bigger recycling bin and we have trouble filling the landfill bin. But do we whinge? No, we take any excess to what my husband insists on referring to as the recycling centre and what most of the rest of us call the tip.

Pickles' announcement panders to the middle classes in the Tory shires but, of course, it doesn't affect Scotland, so what right to I have to complain? Well, of course it does. It's £250 million, a quarter of a billion bleedin' quid, being wasted, giving less money to things like the welfare budget, for example. Frankly, I'd rather ensure that the sick and disabled are properly supported if there's any money to play with. Nobody in this country in this day and age should not have enough food to eat - yet last week Fair Share reported that demand is rising for food from charities because people can't afford to buy it. And a Government we are part of is taking a measure that encourages people to throw food away?  I have no words to describe my fury.

I know that the Tories have to have things to announce at their conference but it really annoys me that they go on about reducing the deficit so as not to leave the next generation with debt, yet they're quite happy to compromise the environment for those same people.

I have never felt comfortable during a Tory Party conference but they take on an added, gut wrenching, feeling now we're in Government with them. Yes, we are taking the sting out of them in so many ways, but announcements like this show that as parties we are a zillion miles apart.

The worst way we could ever find out about how much the Lib Dems influence this Government

So, the conventional wisdom in some parts these days is that we Liberal Democrats have abandoned our principles and turned into Tories overnight.

Except the Tories don't think so. Tim Montgomerie, editor of  Conservative Home, laments that  "with every passing day the Liberal Democrats are dragging the Coalition further away from the Conservative manifesto" .

Sarah Teather is cited as one of the greatest offenders:

The Lib Dems are resisting nearly all pro-family measures. Sarah Teather within Michael Gove's department is the leading obstacle. Sadly Mr Gove has become her leading defender and a leading opponent of another department taking over family policy; reversing his pre-election position that his department should focus only on education.

Well, I won't be complaining about that one.

And he's not too happy about all the green stuff we're responsible for - and has some praise for Chris Huhne:

 Reducing Britain's carbon footprint is the lowest priority of the new generation of Conservative MPs but the arithmetic of the Coalition has tipped the balance in favour of unilateral action on global warming. Huhne may be unpopular with Tory activists but I'd suggest he was one of the government's most effective ministers.

He talks about how we've thwarted their disastrous NHS reforms with the possibility of more to come.

 This is a process that isn't over yet. Baroness Shirley Williams and other members of the Lords may yet further dilute Andrew Lansley's reforms.

Go, Shirley, is all I can say.

And, my favourite bit on how we've stopped them in their tracks on immigration.

 the Coalition is unlikely to fulfil Cameron's promise to reduce net immigration from the hundreds of thousands to the tens of thousands. At every turn the Lib Dems have frustrated Damian Green and Theresa May's efforts.

 Ending child detention is a big thing for me, and we've certainly done loads on stopping their stupid immigration targets, but I don't want you to think that this Government in any way has a humane and decent immigration policy. The UK Borders Agency still treats people unfairly and administers a system that is illiberal and just plain wrong doing things like this. I want to see us doing more on this.

To top it all, the Spectator are having a wee cry into their beer about how Nick Clegg is responsible for steering the coalition away from watering down human rights laws.

Clegg has played an adept hand to frustrate the Tories so far. Now he has made a statement of intent with a great pail of yellow paint.

Every single Liberal Democrat campaign should be making sure local people know that there is a fair amount of unease in the Tory party about how we are stopping them doing their worst. We have to win this argument. The dangers if we do not are huge. If the Tories manage to get an overall majority at the next election, they will be in a position to do what they like. Let's not find out the hard way what they would be like on their own.

Those evil Liberal Democrats are trying to stop the rich getting a hefty tax cut

So says the Telegraph today......

The news that senior Liberal Democrats in the Coalition have set their faces against cuts in the top rate of income tax will dismay senior Right-wing Tories.

Like, presumably, the editor of the Telegraph who might just be in the sort of £100,000 + pay bracket which attracts the 50% tax rate. And Norman Lamont, and millionaire Boris Johnson.

We've just seen the Tea Party Republicans hold the entire global economy to ransom with their idiotic insistence on  tax cuts for the richest paid for by stopping valuable help for the poorest - and, thankfully,  Barack Obama stood firm and refused to give in to such nonsense. Giving the richest more money to spend on luxuries while the poorest struggle to afford the basics is an obscenity no Liberal Democrat should countenance.

It's fair to say that Danny Alexander is not the most popular person amongst Liberal Democrat activists, but he got this 100% right:

 “The Government’s first priority in tax reductions will be tax cuts for people on low and middle incomes – those very families who are working hard to make ends meet.

“Anyone who thinks we are going to shift our priority to reducing the tax burden for the wealthiest, they have got another think coming.”

Abolishing the 50p rate “cannot be the right priority for the country at this time. We are going through very difficult circumstances,” he said.

“We have got real financial pressures on people and we are going to stick to our priority that says tax reductions we can push through will be aimed at those on low and middle incomes.

“We are going to lift the threshold to £10,000. That was a major Liberal Democrat commitment at the election. That is our first income tax priority. That is what we have to stick to.

“The idea that we are going to shift our focus to the wealthiest in the country at a time when everyone is under pressure is just in cloud cuckoo land.”

This is another example of how the Liberal Democrats are taking the sting out of the Tories. And they are showing that they can do it without the Party Conference telling them to.

How the Lib Dems make the difference: Part 1: The Cleaner and the Millionaire Banker #sp11

Remember last year Nick Clegg used the example of the cleaner on the minimum wage who paid a higher marginal rate of tax than her millionaire banker boss to demonstrate the intrinsic unfairness of the tax system?

Well, come the start of the new tax year last week, the cleaner has had a tax cut, or may have even been taken out of tax completely, and the banker now has to pay 10% more on his capital gains.

It's not enough yet, but it's a bigger step in the right direction than I've seen in my lifetime from either Labour or Tory Governments.

And it wouldn't have happened without the Liberal Democrats.

There is, in Scotland, a very deep hatred, fear and distrust of the Tories. How do I know?

 I feel it too.

You see, that fear is entirely justified after what they did to Scotland during the 80s.
 My husband lost his job thanks to their pit closure programme in the 90s.  For at least the six months running up to the General Election last May, I never lost that feeling of background nausea at the fear of what a Tory Government would do. Tax cuts for millionaires while the rest of us suffered. Handing out cash just for being married.   You see, that fear is entirely justified after what they did to Scotland during the 80s. My husband lost his job thanks to their pit closure programme in the 90s.

The very mention of the word Tory is enough to provoke an adrenaline spiked fight or flight reaction in many people.  It's similar to some ways to how I feel about snow and ice. A fall 18 years ago on ice led to me not being able to walk or drive for months. I never want to go through that pain and isolation again.  Unfortunately that fear renders me virtually housebound whenever it snows. The last couple of Winters have been such a joy. My vote goes firmly into the flight camp.

I have, on my infernal wickedness of Sky Plus, a selection of speeches by David Cameron and George Osborne. If I ever feel I'm getting a bit too cosy about what the Government is doing, I watch them. And listening to them articulate their special brand of narrow minded knee jerk nonsense never fails to give me the dry boak - but it affirms to me how much the Liberal Democrats are making the difference in the coalition.

My gut reaction to the Tories is shared by most, if not all, Liberal Democrats. That's why we're Liberal Democrats. I'm glad though, that when faced with the choice of fight or flight last May, we chose to fight. I don't mean that in a combative, aggressive way. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we chose to get stuck in there and get some long standing Liberal Democrat policies and values implemented. Our ministers are doing everything they can to take the sting out of the Tories, and a lot of the time they succeed.

We're not going to win every fight, but we'll usually manage to get some sort of compromise that makes it a bit better. I've heard the word "compromise" being bandied about as if it were some sort of dirty word, some abandonment of principle. It's ironic that it most often comes from Labour, a party which abandoned its principles for electability some years ago. Funny thing is, every human being who interacts with any other human beings understands that compromise is a necessary and vital part of any sort of relationship.

Liberal Democrats don't feel comfortable working with Tories. We get on with it though because it was the only real choice after last year's election. Even if Labour had wanted to stay in power, the numbers would have meant that the resulting government was incredibly fragile. The choice was to step up in the hour of the country's need, or cower on the opposition benches and wait for another election to deliver a Tory overall majority.

We get a bit of criticism from the SNP about working with the Tories. This is a great irony given that despite what their rules say, Annabel Goldie's party has been Alex Salmond's first port of call over the years when he's needed support. He's got them to support his budgets, and vote with the  SNP Government a great deal, if not most, of the time, and it's looked like quite a cosy relationship.

Any UK Government elected last May would have had to have made cuts.Big cuts. Alistair Darling knew that when he suggested raising VAT. Liam Byrne knew that when he left a note saying that there was no money left. Cutting public services is horrible, but in the current circumstances inevitable. Being able to deliver tax cuts for the poorest and many other things despite those pressures has got to be a good thing.

There's no doubt that the Liberal Democrats are acting as a brake on the Tories. We've delayed some of the worst of their ideas and got rid of some others.  You'd be in a right mess if the brakes failed on your car - and so would we be if the Tories were in there on their own, with the influence of their right wing enhanced.

I may not like everything this Coalition Government does, but despite that, it's without doubt the best UK Government I've known. I know Thatcher and Blair didn't set the bar very high, but I believe my party's using its time in office well. Much of the time we do exactly as we said. And when we can't, we do our best to lessen the impact on the most vulnerable.

Clegg and Cameron: a bit of harmony in Government can't be a bad thing, surely

One of my favourite moments so far this year - and if anyone can get me a screen grab of it I will love them forever - was the look on Jon Snow's face as he salivatingly asked for Nick Clegg's wee moment this evening to be replayed. He was enjoying that far more than was decent.

For those of you who haven't seen it, Nick and David Cameron were doing a joint appearance in Nottingham to big up enterprise zones. At the end of the event they took some questions, one of which was about the leaders' debates in the next general election. David Cameron said that he hoped they'd be better natured than last year's. As they were walking out, Nick, who'd forgotten to take his mike off, joked to Cameron that "if we keep doing this we won't find anything to bloody disagree about in the bloody tv debates".

I don't know about you, but after 13 years of Cabinet by attrition from Labour, and, before that, the poisonous atmosphere in the Major Government and before that the withering disrespect Mrs Thatcher had for half her Cabinet, it's quite refreshing to finally see the PM and Deputy PM getting on. You don't need to be be best friends to work with somebody, but a good rapport can't be harmful.

All today's incident shows is that despite the policy differences on Europe, social policy and immigration as well as political and electoral reform to name but a few issues, Nick and Dave get on well enough to have a wee bit of jokey banter. You can't imagine Blair and Brown exchanging social niceties - and in fact they often went for weeks without anything more than a glower across the Cabinet table between them, with legions of aides spending more time fanning the flames of their feud than doing any serious work.

It's not like this was the first clue that Clegg and Cameron get on. A couple of weeks ago, Nick told the Independent that he'd whispered to Cameron that he was talking "utter bilge" at PMQs over AV. You don't talk to someone like that if you don't get on with them.

Way back in September, they put together some furniture for Cameron's new baby.

Of course, if they hadn't spoken at all, or it didn't look like they were getting on, the media would be full of splits and predicting the end of the coalition. They actually can't win. And, to be honest, having a good relationship is a lot less stressful.

What made me laugh out loud was the look on the face of poor Lena Pietsch,  Nick's press secretary. It was one of these "what.a.tool" moments that I'm sure every political staffer has with their boss from time to time. I feel her pain, but in a couple of days this will all blow over.

I guess well you have to remember that in the past couple of weeks Clegg and Cameron have been working together on first building the international coalition and then planning the action in Libya. That must have fostered the team spirit between them.

I have no problem with Cameron and Clegg getting on - I am secure enough in my own party's identity and its contribution to this Government to see it as an asset rather than a liability. I disagree passionately with lots of people about lots of things - doesn't mean I don't like them.

Let's not complain when our leaders behave like grown ups.

A trio of good news on forests, housing benefit and defeated dinosaurs

Honestly, I turn my back for five minutes, and loads of good things happen.

First of all, the ridiculous plans to sell off forests in England are being shelved, according to the BBC after attracting vocal opposition from rural campaigner and MPs like the Liberal Democrat President Tim Farron. This reminds me of how similar plans were scrapped in Scotland after opposition from Scottish Liberal Democrats including leader Tavish Scott.

Secondly, it seems that Housing Benefit will not be cut for people who have been unemployed for a year. I know that Liberal Democrat Ministers have been fighting hard within the Government to make that happen, first delaying the change and now getting rid of it completely. There is much to welcome in the Government's Welfare Reform Bill, published today. I wrote about the proposals in November, highlighting the good things, and the stings in the tail I didn't like.

Both of these show a Government that is more willing to listen than any I've known in my life. It's also the first Government to have Liberal Democrats in it in my life.This is not all about serendipity.  I think that the nature of Coalition Government has meant that the tone is softer. When was the last time that a Tory Government reconsidered a planned change to the benefits system, for example?

Finally, the Labour and Tory dinosaurs in the House of Lords who were trying to derail the AV referendum have failed. The Bill received Royal Assent at pretty much the eleventh hour last night. The referendum will now take place on 5th May as planned. I liked this recent post from Mark Pack which drew some surprising conclusions about the nature of political reform.

Anyway, I can now go back to being led astray by my little sister. Seriously, there was no wine drunk in the house last night until she came back from work at midnight. It must be her fault. See you tomorrow.

Coalition halves pre-charge detention time for terror suspects

One bit of good news this morning - the BBC reports that the power to hold terrorism suspects for 28 days without charge is to lapse, reverting to 14 days.

It's still at least 10 days too long but it's a long way from the 90 days Labour tried to introduce. Imagine being held for 3 months without even being charged!

This is just part of the much needed rebalancing between liberty and security that Nick Clegg talked about the other week and a very welcome development.

The full review of terrorism powers, including the future of control orders, will be revealed next Wednesday. We'll see how that goes, but today's welcome news is definitely a step in the right direction.

My Coalition Reshuffle

I have been challenged by Nick Thornsby to take part in a discussion about how the Coalition is doing and how I'd reshuffle the Government.

I agree with Nick that I think on day to day business, at least from what we see, the Coalition is working well. I do hear hints, however, that our Ministers do have to work very hard on issues that are important to us. Sometimes an argument thought won can break out somewhere else. That's part of the nature of any government, though. This one is a very grown up sort of Government, with disagreements being openly admitted but for the most part handled in a mature and honest fashion. Having said that, there's definitely an argument for giving Nick more back up in overseeing the work of Government as a whole, and that's what I've decided to do in my reshuffle.

I know we're only 8 months in, but it has to be pretty functional so far compared to most others I've been aware of in my life. Mrs Thatcher treated her Cabinet appallingly and did not brook any dissent. John Major, bless him, was a very different kettle of fish, someone I have a great deal of time for. He endured open warfare from his Cabinet down after the 1992 election, which poisoned his whole term. I admired him for the dignity he showed in the face of all of that. It was quite a classy move when he forced a leadership contest with John Redwood in 1995. Even so, that only lanced the boil for a short while. Almost the entire 13 years of Labour were beset by internal strife and power struggle which was deeply unpleasant to witness.

It does seem sometimes like Cameron and Clegg have an air of boys playing at "The West Wing". However, they do seem to have formed a pretty tight group at the centre of government with their close allies Danny Alexander and George Osborne. Its unofficial name, "the Quad" is so private school that it gives me, as they say in Scotland, the dry boke but, aesthetics aside, it seems to work. My unease at the major decisions of Government being taken by 4 men is slightly mitigated by the fact that they are all reasonably young with modern, young families. The gender balance across the Government is appalling - and the fact that the Tories are better than we are at this is embarrassing beyond belief. I'm going to address that too.

But first, the Cabinet positions. I had initially decided that it would be a good idea to dump Jeremy Hunt, Culture Secretary and replace him with David Laws so we'd have a Lib Dem dealing with Murdoch. The only way round that, as there was no way on earth I was prepared to see a Tory Scottish Secretary as Nick Thornsby was, would have been to sacrifice Chris Huhne.  I am keeping Vince Cable because I feel safer with him there.  The prospect of a Tory in charge of Climate Change was equally horrid, so I have decided that the Cabinet should revert to Plan A.

I am hoping that David Laws will soon be cleared by the Standards people. What I would do is give him his old job back and put Danny back to Scotland. That would mean that he could go back to the original plan, that he doesn't have time for in the all consuming Chief Secretary role, of being on many Cabinet Committees, providing invaluable back up to Nick in overseeing what's going on across Government.

In terms of Ministers, I'm afraid one bad appearance on Question Time was enough for me to want to send Jeremy Browne packing to the back benches. He actually sounded more Tory than the Tory he was on with. Nick Clegg has enough of an understanding of foreign policy for me not to worry too much about that Department. However, the Coalition's local Government team needs more Liberal Democrat influence. Step forward Ros Scott, who has shown she has the skills, chairing the FE during the most sensitive and momentous decisions in its history. After that, Eric Pickles would be a piece of cake.

Ken Clarke is also doing a wonderfully liberal job as Justice Secretary, so there's no need for Tom McNally really. We can get rid of him and bring in Jo Swinson at Energy and Climate Change as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State.

I could probably go on, but think I'll leave it there for the moment. Apologies to Mike Moore - he's doing a good job as Secretary of State for Scotland, and I would prefer to keep him.

Jennie will probably glower at me, but I'd really like to see what she'd say about this. Also Charlotte at Virtually Naked, Dan Falchikov and Paul Walter.

Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement

The Coalition Agreement, setting out a plan for the new Government's priorities has been published. It's sorted into policy subjects. I'm going to take out the main points and categorise them as the good, the meh and the you're going to have to lock me in a cupboard with a bottle of gin when they're voting on this or I will explode.

The Good

We've agreed to their spending cuts this year BUT with important caveats:

arrangements that will protect those on low incomes from the effect of public sector pay constraint and other spending constraints;

The parties agree that modest cuts of £6 billion to non-front line services can be made within the financial year 2010-11, subject to advice from the Treasury and the Bank of England on their feasibility and advisability. Some proportion of these savings can be used to support jobs, for example through the cancelling of some backdated demands for business rates. Other policies upon which we are agreed will further support job creation and green investment, such as work programmes for the unemployed and a green deal for energy efficiency investment.

. (The work programme for the unemployed bit belongs with me in the cupboard with the gin bottle)

The parties agree that reductions can be made to the Child Trust Fund and tax credits for higher earners.

are both not a million miles from either of our policies

Our Pupil Premium, and their guarantee of increased funding for the NHS is there - although I hope we will still try and reduce the overmanagement that's so costly and inefficient.

They've agreed to an independent commission on public sector pensions - the Tories were going to cap them at £50,000 - and accrued benefits will be protected which was our policy. I'm not sure if it was the Tories' or not.

Restoration of the pensions/earnings link which is our policy

The parties agree that the personal allowance for income tax should be increased in order to help lower and middle income earners. We agree to announce in the first Budget a substantial increase in the personal allowance from April 2011, with the benefits focused on those with lower and middle incomes. This will be funded with the money that would have been used to pay for the increase in Employee National Insurance thresholds proposed by the Conservatives, as well as revenues from increases in Capital Gains Tax rates for non-business assets as described below. The increase in Employer National Insurance thresholds proposed by the Conservatives will go ahead in order to stop Labour’s jobs tax. We also agree to a longer term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective.

is not quite raising the tax threshold to £10,000 but it's further than Labour ever got on that.

The Tories' ridiculous inheritance tax cut for the rich is junked along with our Mansion Tax.

Our tax switch on aviation duty to per plane rather than per passenger is in there

Capital gains to move towards being taxed as income

Detailed development of Liberal Democrat policies on tax avoidance

A banking levy, action on bankers' bonuses, a commission to work on the structure of the banking industry to report within a year.

Nationalised banks to be given lending targets and more help to businesses

The end of child detention in immigration centres. Phew!

There is no mention of the Tories' loopy plans to deliver public services by means of co-operatives in this.

Fixed term parliaments and an immediate setting of the date for the next election - 7th May 2015. This is a long standing Liberal Democrat principle but there is a caveat - it'll be fun, with the Scottish and Westminster elections up on the same day under different systems - isn't that what we're supposed to be avoiding after the 2007 debacle? We'll have to check if it's feasible. I suppose it has to be an odd number of years to stop it always coinciding with a particular set of Council elections all the time, and 3 is too few and 7 too many.

Power of recall for corrupt MPs

Wholly or mainly elected second chamber by PR - weird, Westminster will remain the only election which uses FPTP. Proposals on this to be sorted by the end of this year.

Full implementation of Calman proposals which the Tories were trying to wriggle out of - that's a good victory for us as there were reports that they wouldn't do anything in this Parliament.

Action on lobbying and party funding - although the wording on this is quite woolly

Ending of compulsory retirement age and requirement to buy annuity at 75 - both of these were our policy

Justice for Equitable Life policy holders that Labour failed to deliver

Pressing for EU to have only one seat - our policy

A Freedom Bill covering everything from no ID cards, better Freedom of Information, libel reform, restoration of right to non violent protest and much more. There is, however, nothing on the Digital Economy Bill. That should deserve demotion to the gin section alone, but as Scott pointed out on Twitter

But worst parts require new SI to bring them in. Now at least people on the inside batting on the topic (Vince at BIS eg)

The Meh

Trident. Let's face it, I'm a peace loving hippy who wants to see us get rid of all nuclear weapons. My own party's policy doesn't give me that and no coalition agreement with anybody was never going to. There is no point wasting energy getting upset on this.

Not joining the Euro and the Euro referendum if any more powers are ceded - Malc thinks we've sold out on this but we were never going to join the Euro anyway so there's really no problem. I suspect there may be some argument over what constitutes a ceding of power big enough to justify a referendum, but I don't think either of these things is necessarily worth dying in a ditch for.

I was going to put our agreement to the immigration cap in the gin section, but I've seen that their is to be joint consideration of the mechanism for implementing it. The principle is wrong but it can stay here for now until we see the final proposals.

I am not an expert on the details of the climate change stuff by any means so I would welcme some opinions on what's in the agreement. To me it doesn't seem robust enough on commitment to renewable energy - our £400 million commitment to get shipyards building renewable tech seems to have gone and our ambitious targets for the future seem to have been lost somewhere.

The "Bring me the Gin now"

We also agree that provision will be made for Liberal Democrat MPs to abstain on budget resolutions to introduce transferable tax allowances for married couples without prejudice to this coalition agreement.

Ok, it's tokenistic but the principle is so plain wrong that abstention isn't good enough. I am not chuffed we have caved on this.

Now, I know we could, some might say should, have held out for STV and gone into opposition of we couldn't get it. I have a whole load of sympathy with that argument. I would actually ditch the referendum on AV - it's a waste of money. Is AV worth us actually campaigning for? I wouldn't be bothered if this referendum never saw the light of day and we shouldn't have agreed to it.

There is a fudge on nuclear power

There will be a rammy on tuition fees at some point - and we'll only be allowed to abstain and not oppose.

The bit on welfare reform that we are signed up to isn't as bad as I thought. I'm not keen on welfare to work schemes because they often don't offer any real help or long standing jobs to the claimants. I'm sure there's worse in their manifesto, but I can't get it to download to check. Nevertheless, Iain Duncan Smith is in charge, which is deeply scary.

So, there's an awful lot of our policy going to be implemented if it all works out. There's also potential for trouble. I am kind of torn between being grateful that it's a Lib Dem, David Laws, in charge of managing the spending cuts and concerned that we'll end up with all of the blame for stuff that's not necessarily our fault.

There's potential for huge rows, but also for good. It could all go horribly wrong in just about every way but there's an element of utter madness about it that might make it work. I still have very, very mixed feelings about it, but mostly I'm thinking that this is a good antidote to the fear that trounced hope in the election. We're long overdue some hope getting its own back. Now to stock up on the Hendricks Gin......

Live Blogging the Clegg and Cameron News Conference

I'm listening to the Clegg and Cameron news conference and have to nip out for the school run pretty much immediately afterwards so I thought I'd just type up a brief summary of what happened as it happened and hit publish. I probably won't get a great opportunity to spill chuck so if it looks a mess, I apologise in advance.

Cameron starts by talking about Nick and I working together.

This is the first coalition in 65 years united behind 3 principles of freedom, fairness and responsibility and one purpose of giving Britain the strong, stable government it needs.

I've been appointing the Cabinet and I will be chairing National Security Council with Nick Clegg as my side.

Liberal Democrats will be represented at every level of government - representative of depth of coalition and shared desire to work together for the national interest.

No Government in modern times have ever been left with such a terrible economic inheritance - today's unemployment figures are sign of the human cost of the mistakes of the past decade.

We are announcing a new politics where national interest takes precedence over party interest.

The agreement is for 5 years and we will act for long term.

We want to take power from politicians and give it to people. I'm delighted to be standing here with the new Deputy PM

Nick Clegg

We've just been through an election and now we have a coalition. We were rivals, and now we're colleagues. It says a lot about the scale of the politics. It's a radical and reforming government but it's also stable.

Public finances are in a mess, society scarred by poverty and inequality, our troops involved in conflict, the economy has not yet got to its feet. This is what we have come together to provide.

There will be bumps and scrapes but this Government will last despite these differences because we have a job we want to do together in the next five years.

We want to change the lives of people and families for the better. For me liberalism is about making sure that people can live the life they want to live. To have the opportunities you crave. Fairer taxes, better schools, cleaner politics. I want this to be a bold, reforming government that puts fairness back into Britain, a government which hands back liberties and privacy, where fine words on the environment translated into action.

I came into politics to change politics and change Britain for good.

Gary Gibbon:

We all thought coalition was accidental result of election - you sound like it's a mission. Could it last beyond this arrangement?

DC This is a 5 year arrangement for interests of country. We both had a choice - we looked at confidence and supply and had a meeting and thought this is so uninspiring but it's not going to do what we came into politics to achieve. We want to sort things out. We looked at each other and wanted to aim for something bigger and better.

NC People told us that nobody deserved an outright majority. But also need stability so we tried to underpin a common purpose to our working together.

Nick Robinson

On the morning after the night before did you not think I'm hooked up to somebody I barely know? Are you going to do everything together

DC This is so much better than the alternatives. We can do so much to sort out the country's problems. I felt inspired and excited.

This is not just 2 teams trying to work together. We are separate parties but we are trying to form 1 team and we will do things together.

Adam Boulton

What's going to happen with PMQs? What about press conferences? What about political reform

Nick will stand in as Deputy PM at PMQs. Haven't discussed press conferences.

The negotiating teams worked very well together - found good ways of resolving differences.

DC joked he's looking forward to a lot of foreign travel so Nick can handle PMQs

Jon Snow

Where will Nick Clegg function from?

DC

Nick is going to be responsible for political reform. He will work in Cabinet Office. This is not going to be a partnership where we have to book meetings. Doors will be permanently open to each other.

Tom Bradby

Left of Lib Dems and right of Tories can't hold together for very long.

DC

If we can demonstrate this is a good government and we're working well together, people will see that and respect it. What is politics? It's all about public service in the national interest.

NC

Always going to be sceptics and a million reasons not to try something new. We are both taking big risks. There was overwhelming support in my party for this cos we collectively recognised that this was the right thing to do for the country at this time

Andy Bell

When once asked what your favourite joke was, you replied Nick Clegg.

Nick pretends to walk off in the huff as Cameron sheepishly says, yes I did that.

German journalist

Asked about European Government

DC talked to Angela Merkel yesterday about European policy and coalitions.

He says we have resolved the issues which divide us.

Abolition of DTI would be largest act of deregulation - Vince said that in 2004

NC

Things have changed since then and we need to rebuild British economy on new sustainable foundations. He will create new ideas about new forms of growth and innovation. He will be able to map out a vision of a new kind of economy.

Observer

If this is such a fantastic agreemetn for new politics, what would you have against PR?

DC I've made my feelings clear about PR, but I have gone the extra mile to try to build the coalition. It's important to build the trust between the parties.

Times

On point of 5 year parliament - is that an aspiration or will it be fixed in early legislation.

Given the range your parties represent are you going to whip severely?

Thirsk and Malton by-election Will you be encouraging your candidates to campaign against each other

DC We expect our parties to put up candidates and campaign reasonably

Fixed term parliaments going to be very early legislation

We have a strong majority together in Commons and Lords - people will want to take a stand on an issue sometimes but we want people to stick to coalition agreement and our whips can maybe learn things from each other.

NC

This represents a significant change. It would not be a faintly radical thought in many countries that people can work together in Government but campaign separately.

Press Conference ends............

This is just a quick impression from me - I found it incredible to see David Cameron describe how they had been trying to get agreement for a Confidence and Supply arrangement and then he and Nick Clegg looked at each other and decided that just sounded uninspiring and difficult and they wanted to do better.

It sounds like they've set up a cycle of inspiration and idealism between them in which they egg each other on.

There wasn't much of substance to be honest in what they said, but what was interesting was the interaction between the two of them. In the time they've been holed up in negotiations, they seem to have discovered that they actually like each other and can work together. Well, that beats looking daggers at each other across a table. You don't have to like your colleagues but it helps.

The bit where Nick Clegg threatened to walk off in the huff when confronted with something nasty Cameron had said about him was absolutely hilarious - and interesting because you need to feel relatively comfortable with someone to joke like that in public, let alone in private. Joking aside, Nick is particularly good at that kind of disarming, jokey banter to diffuse a situation.

Right - off to do the school run, but I have a hot date with the coalition agreement later. See you then.

I'm not naive enough to think that this is enough to sustain a working relationship, but it does help if the chemistry is good.

All smiles (me included) as Nick Clegg enters Downing Street

I wrote last night of my mixed emotions watching Cameron entering Downing Street and how I didn't really feel anything at all when Blair went in in 1997.

As the BBC kept reporting that Nick Clegg was heading to Downing Street this morning, I did wonder how I'd feel watching him walk in there and shake hands with David Cameron.

I honestly didn't know whether I would smile or cry.

When the moment came, and Nick got out of his car and walked down towards the famous door, I felt so proud. I couldn't stop grinning, even when Cameron came out.

The body language between the two of them was very positive. Nick is going to be no pushover and is going to be equal in this partnership.

It's going to be weird because the two of them have to build a working relationship. I certainly think Nick will prove his worth within the government very quickly. There are bound to be undercurrents but he's not daft and will do as much as he can to implement the many Liberal Democrat policies which the coalition agreement contains as well as to provide the country with a stable government. It's a job that needed to be done and we've stepped up.

I feel like I've gone through every emotion in its most intense form in the last 5 days. That's not going to change any time soon and my feelings about this are not enthusiastic by any stretch of the imagination. and I'm still lurching between horror, fear, pride and hope but this new Government is going to get its chance.