Over on Lib Dem Gains I've mentioned Nick Clegg's speech to mark the first anniversary of the coalition government a couple of times over the past few days. Here's a Wordle word cloud generated from the text of the speech:
The speech reinforced the reasons for entering the coalition government, some of the achievements made and how the party should respond to last week's election results. It also looked to the future and how the party can continue to assert its identity and put its stamp on the government.
No surprises then, the words coalition and government occur so often... but the Lib Dems are aiming to provide a Liberal heart. Examples include the ending of child detention, the extension of the personal allowance for income tax and the Pupil Premium.
Nick quoted research reported on the BBC and elsewhere which suggests that "75 per cent of our manifesto is being implemented through the coalition agreement, compared to 60 per cent of the Conservative manifesto."
He also dealt with economic issues both as a reason for the coalition and with reference to a Liberal Democratic vision of a rebalanced, greener economy - learning the lessons of the Eighties and Nineties. Indeed, the economy was a central plank of the speech - it's clear the government believe, not unreasonably, it is on this issue that the coalition will be judged. It is important, therefore, that Lib Dems can point to achievements in this area too.
You can read the speech in full here and I've re-published the section on the economy as part of this post.
Andrew
2 comments:
I must be one of the VERY few who feel uncomfortable at the widespread, total trashing of N.C. I say no more for now as I'm keeping my powder dry - hoping that it might yet not be needed.
You have to love Wordle Andrew.
Coalitions are great constructions of modern society, but if a society isn't really helping the majority of the nation's people, why bother. In our nation, progressives consistently build coalitions with conservatives, and each time they do, progressives loose ground. our center is so far to the right now it isn't funny. It is hard to convince people to do the right thing or even to do things in there own best interest. But we have to try.
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