The Cameregg plan: Who got what?

Not quite the same

The new party should henceforth be called ConDem

I'd pay to watch that

"...henceforth to be known as Dick Clameron..."

When will the splicing operation happen, and will it be up in You Tube?

Civil liberties

Civil liberties stuff looks good to me.

Can't really offer an opinion on the financial stuff (you're going to pay tax _somewhere_), and the education elements don't look too horrendous for my kids either.

Relief

Excellent. If they do nothing else in government they'll have, via this Great Repeal, dealt with at least half of why I took enormous pleasure in voting out NuLabour at this election.

Same old Tories?

Not sure it is, you know. Cameron apparently isn't, though whether he can deliver the party when push comes to shove remains to be seen.

There's a fair amount of stuff in there that Blair/Brown could and should have done (or committed to doing) if they hadn't been scared witless of "the markets" and of losing their cushy post-governmental appointments.

The banking tax, to name but one. The devil is of course in the detail, but El Gordo could have committed to the principle of a banking tax.

El Gordon didn't, and considering that and a shedload of other missed opportunities (and broken promises going back as far as 1997) he lost a lot of votes (mine, for one).

The Two New Etonians have even decommitted to extra runways at Thiefrow and Stansted. Why couldn't Labour have said they'd do that?

There is a slight flaw in the ointment though: just look at the reality of any local council that's had a LibCon alliance in control (e.g. Birmingham) in recent years. It won't be pretty.

Dick Clameron

I thought we were referring to them as Campo and Clegg?

DEB?

I for one welcome our new Conservacrat overlords!

Well, if the do actually deliver what they say anyway.

But what of the Digital Economy Bill? Forgotten already?

Blimey

I'm feeling a bit light headed. Perhaps I'm dreaming?

There seem to be an awful lot of perfectly reasonable, pretty well balanced, common sense policies there. To use those words in conjunction with Government and Politics.... well.... I think I might need to sit down for a bit.

Lets hope they can actually implement them.

Dick Clameron

I prefer "The Cleggeron"...

Pretty good.

I'd bet dumping the "Interception Modernization Programme" would save cash on the sort of scale needed to make some real differences.

I predict a fair number of civil servants will become "Surplus to requirements."

As an observer from across the pond...

It makes me quite happy to see the UK government step back from the really disturbing cliff-edge it had been charging for.

If this goes the way it looks like, (and the police stop hassling photographers) I may have to reconsider my putting the UK on my "no-fly" list...

Plus, if the conservatives and liberals in the UK can work together, maybe we can use this as a clue-by-four for our domestic political trolls. Here's to hoping.

What happened in Birmingham ... from memory from a resident.

What's happened in Birmingham, amongst other things, is that there has been a huge focus on the city centre business areas while the areas where people live (and indeed where they work, or used to work, outside the centre) have largely been neglected (exceptions apply, as always). Some of the changes are positive, many less so.

A large programme of redundancies at the City Council is in progress, and although some staff cuts may indeed be needed, in the bits I'm aware of the process can be politely described as "brutal" and "ill managed". Lots of Council services have been poorly delivered (zero stars for social services???) and city assets such as much of Leisure Services properties are lined up for being sold off ("selling the family silver to pay for the Sky subscription").

The level of borrowing is such that it is alleged that 25% of revenue (total revenue? poll tax? these are very different sums) next year will go on paying interest on debt. I am not 100% confident in this, but it has an element of plausibility.

Even the famous Kings Heath Gardeners Festival was threatened with closure to avoid risking a few thousand pounds, but it has had a (temporary?) reprieve.

I don't believe everything I read in the Birmingham Meaning Evil, but I have reliable independent sources for this and much much more.

Les Dawson would have summarised it as "fur coat and no knickers".

Doubtless other versions of this story are available.

Crumbs

Legislation against unnecessary legislation eh? I just hope it's really necessary!

Not a bad start

to be fair.

I'll believe it...

...when I see it.

In the elections in Australia a couple of years ago we were over the moon that Howard and the Liberals were finally ousted from power. 12 years of Liberal rule saw our country devolve into a nanny police state with few if any freedoms left. Labor had always been the working-man's party, and we expected a new era of freedom and prosperity. The $900 cash handout from KRudd's Labour government was a shining start.

Then it just turned and continued down the same despotic slope. Internet censorship, tightening of anti-free speech laws, tightening of anti-terror laws, all the trappings of the police state continued even faster than before.

Sorry to bruise your apples, guys, but the politicians and those behind them insist on a world police state and they will continue to get it. This lot will throw you a few sops but the likes of CEOP and their ilk will continue to erode your civil liberties in the name of protecting children and fighting terrorists. The nanny state will continue apace, despite the best promises the pollies can make.

The best of too few options

Another thumbs up from here, hopefully the lib dems (my choice), will reduce the tory evil gene, and if they both keep out the evil sith lord mandelson the world may yet be filled with happiness, hope and spontaneous out breaks of singing and dancing in the streets.

Or, you know, SSDD - same shit, different day.

"The Cameregg plan: Who got what?"

...we all got shafted, that's what!

Same old Tories - first rumour is that VAT is to go up, thus neutering the LibDem 10k Tax threshold's easing effects for the worst off.

Flames, because that's what we'll probably get on our streets like in the 80s!

The Aussie Liberal Party are no Liberals!

@Steve Roper - the Liberal Party down your way is nothing like what any sane man would call Liberal in any other part of the world