Right, time to set the alarm clock extra early for tomorrow morning to do a Radio 5 Live interview as it’s the week of the Mid-Term Review.
Not the original Mid-Term Review, as was planned back in the early days of the Parliament, that is – but the Slimmed Down Super Light edition, which will contain a fair amount of ‘look how we’re doing better than Labour’ and then a clutch of new policy announcements for the second half of this Parliament.
How well or badly the former is done matters a little for the Government and the party’s immediate political prospects, though not at that much as most individual political events pass by the public without leaving much of an impression. The latter could be rather more significant, depending on what’s in the announcements.
An inevitable feature of coalition government is that some of the announcements will be policies that a Liberal Democrat government would not introduce; the flip side being that some should be things which a government excluding the Lib Dems will not do either and there will most likely be a middle ground of policies which both parties battle out to claim the political credit for.
In the first camp, it’s looking likely that policies such as a big expansion of private road building will feature. In the Lib Dem camp, it looks as if the strong push by Paul Burstow and others to reform social care will bear fruit as will the party’s concentration on tackling youth unemployment. Then particularly up for grabs as to who gets the political credit will most likely be policies on pensions and child care, the latter a particular passion of Nick Clegg’s but also something some Tories have been champing at the bit to get tax breaks for.
* Mark Pack has written 101 Ways To Win An Election and produces a monthly newsletter about the Liberal Democrats.
Follow @LibDemVoice on Twitter
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
The Sun story about Chris Huhne that was a total invention (and which the other papers happily copied)
11 Liberal Democrat MPs vote for registrars to be exempt from marrying same sex couples
How Liberal Democrat MPs voted on same sex marriage amendments
Same sex Marriage: another Liberal Democrat victory
Opinion: Why Lib Dems should support the Referendum on the EU – and let’s have it before 2015
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP writes…An EU-US trade deal would be good for Europe and for Britain
Opinion: An EU exit would be bad for Britain; it is our job to explain why
Opinion: Some thoughts on the NHS from a recent patient
“Is the coalition government doing enough to encourage social mobility?”
Lib Dem plan for a Greener, Fairer and Stronger Lancashire is Passed
Question Time Liveblog 23/5/13
A day in the life of a Stockport Councillor
New north Kingston secondary school - Goldsmith tries to claim credit for Tories
Just because you murder someone, it doesn't mean your views are worth hearing
We should turn Britain into a tax haven
A chillingly bizarre aspect of yesterday's ranting butcher video
San Francisco in 1951 as seen from a U.S. Navy submarine
bcrombie
Amalric
Eddie Sammon
Michael Parsons
Richard Wingfield
3 Comments
Hmmm… nice to see those at the top of the party who have thrown off the shackles of oppositionism and uncosted promises and have found things to enthuse the legions of ex Lib Dems who have deserted the party.
Cameron stands by his core voters with a refusal to contemplate cutting freebies for rich pensioners – where’s the quid quo pro for Lib Dem voters?
Mid Term Revue?
That Was The Coalition That Was!
For all the hype about the Mid-Term Review, it is worth knowing that this is the residue of a much more ambitious project (‘Coalition Phase 2′) and therefore only a shadow of what was originally planned:
http://liberator-magazine.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/mid-term-review-whats-all-that-about.html