Liberal Democrats

Are coalitions bad for your electoral health? By Colin Talbot

6 May 2011 | Colin Talbot

Well, they appear to be if you are the junior partner. The Liberal Democrats nationally and Plaid Cymru in Wales – both junior partners in coalitions – have fared badly in yesterday’s elections, whilst their senior partners have done much better. Read more...

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General theorising on Keynes, by Tony Dolphin

19 January 2011 | Tony Dolphin

Leading Liberal Democrats, including Vince Cable and David Laws, have been defending the coalition’s policy of substantial public spending cuts in  recent days, in part through an appeal to Keynes. Their central thesis is that the economy will only recover if private investment spending accelerates, that private investment spending will only accelerate if interest rates are low, and that interest rates will only remain low if the government reduces its deficit quickly. Read more...

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The missing mandate, by Colin Talbot

12 January 2011 | Colin Talbot

I was surprised to hear David Cameron admit on Sunday’s Andrew Marr Show that ‘no-one gave us a mandate on how to run a coalition’. How true, how very, very, true. Read more...

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Turning off the taps, by Brendan Barber

9 September 2010 | Brendan Barber

The public have so far acquiesced in the public spending cuts – but this will change when they start to feel the effects Read more...

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Committee politics, coalition style, by Dan Corry

31 August 2010 | Dan Corry

So, thanks to the early birth of the new Cameron child, Nick Clegg looks set to stay in the government hot seat for a little while longer. He will be hoping that the young guns at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, having worked through August to show that the first Coalition Budget was not in fact progressive, now take a bit of a break. Read more...

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Clegg & the IFS: opportunity knocked, by Colin Talbot

26 August 2010 | Colin Talbot

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg claims in today’s Financial Times that the Coalition’s policies are ‘fair’ and we shouldn’t get hung up on ‘the numbers’. Nice try Nick, but no prize, I’m afraid. Read more...

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A 100-day honeymoon? By Tim Morgan

13 August 2010 | Tim Morgan

On 18 August the British coalition government will have been in office for 100 days, a period generally regarded as the duration of the political honeymoon that a newly-elected government can anticipate. Though the concept of a 100-day political honeymoon is better understood in the US than here, it has particular resonance now because of the way in which the media initially portrayed the alliance between David Cameron and Nick Clegg as a ‘marriage’. Read more...

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Pupil premium: another funding row in the making, by Conor Ryan

9 August 2010 | Conor Ryan

Today’s reports about Departmental warfare with the Treasury over the cuts are hardly a great surprise. But what will disappoint many in schools is the suggestion in The Guardian that the pupil premium, the Lib Dems’ flagship schools policy, may be less than £1000 a year – compared with the £2500 promised in the Lib Dem manifesto – and that the Treasury is expecting the Department for Education to stump up much of the cash itself. Read more...

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When the going gets tough, by Steve Freer

16 June 2010 | Steve Freer

The waiting is almost over.  Last week’s CIPFA Conference may go down as the last such event of the old era, the end of the Good Old Days!  As new President, Jaki Meekings Davis said in her opening address, ‘The time for talking is over……’ Read more...

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Talking the talk, by Mike Thatcher

10 June 2010 | Mike Thatcher

As former Swedish prime minister Göran Persson told the annual CIPFA conference in Harrogate this week, it’s easy to get elected; what’s difficult is to get re-elected. Read more...

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