I was a bit rude about Nick Clegg last week because he had sold out (there is nothing worse then your favourite band’s tunes turning up on an advert) and I still sort of think that but I am willing to give it a bit more time.
The 12 page agreement between to parties was published and, reading through it, (yes I have done that) it’s not that bad. Yes we have had to take a few hits, the Mansion Tax is gone (which is good because it was a little arbitrary) and so is the idea about thinking about replacing Trident with something else but over all, ok.
You can look at this way; we have a Conservative Government that will enact some LibDem policies, try and accentuate the positive (there should be a song about that).
No ID cards, the National Identity Register, the next generation of biometric passports and the Contact Point database, gone. Even Liberty are pretty happy. Think about that people, Liberty are happy with the proposals of a Conservative (with a little help from those nice LibDems) government on Civil liberties. I think Labour may have gone a little far.
Jury Trials protected, outlawing the finger printing of children, extension of the Freedom of Information Act, restoration of right to non violent protest and an end to detention of children in immigration cases. These are all good things.
The economy plans are not the worst thing I have ever seen either. There are some spending cuts that we aren't overly comfortable with but they are going to raise the starting rate of income tax to £10,000, who idea was that?
There will be an increase in Capitol Gains tax, whose idea? Closing of tax loopholes, our idea.
The Tories have dropped their plans to increase the threshold for Inheritance Tax which would have only helped about 3000 of the richest families in the country, I imagine under pressure from the yellow party.
Pupil Premiums, LibDem idea. The Tories seem to have forgotten that they won't to get rid of the 50% top tax bracket, I wonder why?
Oh and who is now in charge of the those nasty bankers who fucked us over, ruined the World's economy and cost thousands of people their jobs, that would be Liberal Democrat Vince Cable (The least comfortable LibDem in the Team photo).
Oh, on a bit of a photographic tangent, Danny Alexander (The new Scottish Secretary) and Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age front man) separated at birth? Have you ever seen them in the same room together?
I’m sure you can tell which one is which, just.
There is also a little more cunning about us than many would have expected. Yes, we may have been talked into dropping our commitment to “no more Nuclear” but do you know who is Minister for Climate/Environment, why that would be Liberal Democrat Chris Huhne. He has made a commitment that there will be no Government subsidy for the building of new nuclear. This means that, due to the fact that Nuclear power stations are really, really expensive, the likelihood is that they won't be built. Not so naive now are we.
My long and rambling point is that we really should give it time. I know that it is not what we wanted but I think we are going to have to settle for it.
As I've said before, this is just about the worst situation for Nick Clegg to have placed in, everything he could have done would have been wrong.
Please don't think that I have gone soft, I understand that there are xenophobes, racists and homophobes in the Tory Party, some in the Cabinet, I'm looking at you Theresa May (not Teresa May though, very different woman) who voted against repeal of section 28 and equality for the age of consent. She voted against Gay adoption and failed to attend all four votes that lead to the Gender Recognition Act but we have the chance to dilute these idiots, to educate them as they seem to operate from a massive field of ignorance.
There are problems but it might just work.
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