A lot of focus (and quite rightly so) has been placed in the media on the new coalition formed by the former-rivals-but-now-friends Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats. While perceived by many that the Lib Dems have got a raw deal out of this, it is worth reflecting on the policies that they managed to negotiate into the agreed coalition agreement.
In addition to four cabinet seats, its leader Nick Clegg has been installed as Deputy Prime Minister and Vince Cable in finally in charge of monitoring banks and businesses.
The following list of Lib Dem policies as featured in the manifesto and circulated to members of the party this evening by Chief Executive Chris Fox, outlines all those adopted by the coalition in government:Scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database.
Outlaw the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission.
Extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency.
Adopt the Scottish approach to stopping retention of innocent people’s DNA on the DNA database.
Defend trial by jury.
Restore rights to non-violent protest.
A review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
Safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
Further regulation of CCTV.
Ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason.
A new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
End the detention of children for immigration purposes.
Fairer taxes and Economic Reform
A substantial increase in the personal allowance from April 2011 with a longer term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective
Reform of the banking system, ensuring a flow of lending to businesses and a Banking Levy. An independent commission on separating retail and investment banking.
Capital Gains Tax reform
Fair Politics
Fixed-term parliaments and a referendum on electoral reform for the House of Commons.
A power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP was found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing.
A wholly or mainly elected House of Lords on the basis of proportional representation.
Giving Parliament control of its own agenda so that all bills are properly debated.
Enacting the Calman Commission proposals and a referendum on further Welsh devolution.
A statutory register of lobbyists.
A limit on political donations and reform of party funding in order to remove big money from politics.
Radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.
A fair and sustainable future
Establish a smart electricity grid and the roll-out of smart meters.
Establish feed-in tariff systems in electricity
A huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.
The creation of a Green Investment Bank.
The provision of home energy improvement paid for by the savings from lower energy bills.
Retention of energy performance certificates when HIPs are scrapped.
Measures to encourage marine energy.
The establishment of an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient CCS to meet the emissions performance standard.
Establish a high-speed rail network.
Cancel the third runway at Heathrow and refuse additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.
Replace the Air Passenger Duty with a ‘per plane’ duty.
The provision of a floor price for carbon, as well as efforts to persuade the EU to move towards full auctioning of ETS permits.
Make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence.
Promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats and restore biodiversity.
Reduce central government carbon emissions by 10 per cent within 12 months.
Increase the target for energy from renewable sources.
A Fair Start for Children
Introduce a Pupil Premium to give all children a fair start.
Pensions
Restoration of the earnings link for the basic state pension from April 2011 with a “triple guarantee” that pensions are raised by the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%.
Phase out the default retirement age and end the rules requiring compulsory annuitisation at 75.
Implement the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman’s recommendation to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policyholders.
So as you can see, it's not all bad for the Liberal Democrats - they've managed a few victories but unfortunately were not able to win the war over the policy fields of Electoral Reform, Immigration and the EU...
