Something you're not telling us? By Ian Mulheirn

12 May 10
The Con-Lib pact is an exciting and welcome development in British politics. It is in the country's interest that the venture succeeds, but can it?

The Con-Lib pact is an exciting and welcome development in British politics. It is in the country's interest that the venture succeeds, but can it?

On policy, today's six-page publication outlining the deal will win approval from those of a social market persuasion. There are a lot of good ideas here: particularly on banking reform, the fiscal policy framework, schools and welfare reform, many of which the SMF has advocated in the past.

But while there's detail on some relatively minor policy questions - like the possession of illegal timber - little light is shed on an agreed approach between the parties to the swingeing public spending cuts to come. While we wouldn't expect them to have knocked out a joint budget over the weekend, some discussion on the direction of travel must have been held. After all, it will be painful decisions about where taxes rise and the public spending axe falls that will test the durability of this coalition, not agreement on switching from a 'per passenger' to a 'per plane' duty.

So either deficit reduction wasn't really discussed in detail - in which case the partnership could unravel by the time of the spending review - or it was, in which case there's a secret and far more juicy document we've not been show, setting out how they plan to tackle the fiscal crisis.

Ian Mulheirn is director of the Social Market Foundation

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