The new 2010 Coalition Cabinet ...

[peterb]

<---snip


Oh, and by the way, the scuttlebutt is that there;s a MAJOR rollback of Labour's civil liberties erosions in the LibTory agreement. A "Freedom Act", apparently, repealing a lot of legislation, presumably including ID cards (as both Tory and LD campaigned against them), and probably aspects of the DNA database, and so forth. Bring it on.

Two birds with one stone - repealing unpopular legislation and making some reductions in civil expenditure.

[scaryjim]

To answer my own question, he got Chief Secretary to the Treasury (effectively, deputy Chancellor).

He is to George Osborne what Nick Clegg is to David Cameron.

It's an interesting move that keeps the Tories under close observation without directly interfering in the business of government (at least, if I've understood correctly). It should keep them honest though, knowing they have someone looking over their shoulders whose support they rely on to remain in government (although as I mentioned somewhere else, the new fixed-term parliaments require a 55% no-confidence vote to remove the government, rather than 50% +1, and the Tories command 47% of parliament: someone had their maths head on when they planned that bit of policy... )

[peterb]

<---snip That's perhaps the one biggest legacy of the Thatcher years - she eroded society almost to the point of extinction. So we have this culture of the individual where "my" needs are more important than those of the country as a whole.

I wouldn't say it was the biggest legacy, but I 'd agree it certainly that a side effect was that it generated a more selfish society. And it was compounded by the later increase in welfare benefits that eroded a sense of responsibility for their own actions. There is much talk of "rights" without much talk of the responsibilities that go with them.

Personally, I'd probably look to move away from personal (income) taxation and more towards consumption taxation. But I'd still have a progressive system where higher earners pay more tax. If that drives out the high earners who are more concerned for their own back pocket than the society they live in, so be it.

Which is what the last conservative government did, raising the level of VAT from 8% to 15%, and then to 17.5%.

It's an interesting move that keeps the Tories under close observation without directly interfering in the business of government (at least, if I've understood correctly). It should keep them honest though, knowing they have someone looking over their shoulders whose support they rely on to remain in government (although as I mentioned somewhere else, the new fixed-term parliaments require a 55% no-confidence vote to remove the government, rather than 50% +1, and the Tories command 47% of parliament: someone had their maths head on when they planned that bit of policy... )

Th estimation is that there will be 20 lib-dem MPs in the Government - an interesting number as that was the shortfall in seats for an overall majority, and members of the Government cannot vote against themselves.

[oolon]

Th estimation is that there will be 20 lib-dem MPs in the Government - an interesting number as that was the shortfall in seats for an overall majority, and members of the Government cannot vote against themselves.

Oooo now that is smart, I had not noticed that one.

[petercook7]

it will fail after a while, MPs are like kids.

[Kata]