Here comes the Mid-Term Review (Slimmed Down edition)

By Mark Pack | Sun 6th January 2013 - 6:06 pm

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 is Party President and is the editor of Liberal Democrat Newswire.

3 Comments

Dan Falchikov 6th Jan '13 - 10:08pm

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?
Tony Dawson 6th Jan '13 - 10:10pm

Mid Term Revue?

That Was The Coalition That Was! 😉
Simon Titley 6th Jan '13 - 10:39pm

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