Here are letters N to S in our A-Z guide the coalition’s first year. A-F are here. G-M are here.
N is for No
Nothing has frayed coalition relations quite like the AV referendum has. This was always going to be the case, but the viciousness it inspired has still been fairly shocking. Need we remind you of Chris Huhne’s outburst in Cabinet last week? Or of George Osborne’s stinging riposte? Even David Cameron seems to have relished taking it out on his coalition stablemates, trashing their pet policies with a vigour that would have been unthinkable only a few months ago.
As Tim Montgomerie reveals in his exhaustive guide to the No campaign, Cameron’s firmer stance coincided with a realisation of just what he was risking. A victory for Yes, and the PM’s decision to permit a referendum would have looked like a fatal concession. Even a close victory for No might have set Tory backbenchers grumbling. But, as it was, Cameron’s gamble paid off, and overwhelmingly:
Not that the Prime Minister can rest easily now that the referendum has been won. The fallout still needs to be dealt with. So far, all involved have emphasised the continued strength of the coalition, particularly in its resolve to fix our broken economy. But as both the Tories and Lib Dems also work to distinguish and assert themselves, there’s an undeniable sense that something has changed. No longer, talk of a formal Liberal Conservatism — but, as Nick Clegg put it earlier today, of two parties that “stand together, but not so closely that we stand in each other’s shadows.”
O is for Oxbridge
What is is about Oxbridge? The spires and quadrangles have, this year, almost become a by-word for the debate about social mobility in this country. David Cameron made his own, heavily disputed, point about their intake recently. But the real point abides in a line uttered by Nick Clegg: “Oxford and Cambridge take more students each year form just two schools — Eton and Westminster — than from the 80,000 pupils who are eligible for free schools meals.”
The government has released a raft of proposals aimed at correcting such iniquities — from the pupil premium to ending unpaid internships — which we analysed at the time. More important than any of these, though, is the task of bringing state schools up to the level of the independent sector. Clegg’s defining ambition to improve social mobility rests on the success of Michael Gove’s schools reforms.
P is for Porridge
The European Court of Human Rights has already caused one prison-related headache for coalition, with its judgements on prisoner voting. But the coalition has also caused one for itself, with Ken Clarke’s controversial reforms. There is no doubt that the justice system could work better, particularly when it comes to reducing reoffending. But Clarke’s de-emphasis on custodial sentences is anathema to much of the public — and to many Tory backbenchers too.
What’s striking is how the coalition is adopting a two-pronged approach to crime. So far as catching crims is concerned, they are pursuing policies that aim to satisfy the general public, such as elected police commissioners. But as for locking them up, the focus is on the recommendations of academics and other experts. The first pleases the Tory half of the coalition, the second the Lib Dems — a situation that doesn’t make for an easy working relationship between Clarke and Theresa May.
Q is for Quad
Here’s one straight from the lexicon of coalition government: quad. It was used most frequently in the build-up to the spending review, to describe those four ministers — David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne and Danny Alexander — who decided where the cuts would fall. But, as any political anorak knows, it has also been used since: for the meetings that Cameron, Clegg, Osborne and Vince Cable, this time, held to discuss banking reform.
R is for Rose Garden
Okay, okay — as Michael Crick pointed out yesterday, the Downing Street garden is not technically of the rose variety. But as we needed to fill the “R” slot, as well as mention David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s extraordinary first press conference together, we hope you forgive us for relying on the Westminster shorthand.
Watching the footage now, it’s clear that this was not just the birth of the coalition, but also of the idea that the two parties might merge more completely (not to mention all the Brokeback gags). The easy bonhomie between the two men is quite remarkable, even when it emerges that Cameron once described Clegg as his “favourite joke”.
The subsequent metaphors about “thorns” and “fading blossom” may write themselves, but they also happen to be true. Post-AV referendum, we are unlikely to see such an event
again.
S is for Salmon fillets
Did you know? The price of salmon fillets has risen by £2.96 a kilo — or 23 per cent — over the last year. And it’s not just the cost of fish. Potatoes are up by 22 per cent. Grapes, 10 per cent. Coffee, 14 per cent. Chicken, 9 per cent. And then, of course, there’s petrol, which now costs 136p a litre, up from 120p a year ago.
These are all snapshots of what is becoming one of the coalition’s most troubling economic and political problems: inflation. By most forecasts, it’s set to exceed the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target for some time to come:
It would easy to put this down to global convulsions, such as oil prices and food shortages, were it not for the fact that Britain’s inflation is almost the worst of any major economy, far outstripping that of France, Germany and America:
All of which poses a question for Mervyn King and his Monetary Policy Committee: raise interest rates, or live with rampant inflation? Keeping rates at an artificial low may stimulate growth. But
so long as inflation keeps outpacing wage growth, it could be a vicious sort of recovery.
Click here for part 4.
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