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Coalition government: 100 days of solicitude?

By Channel 4 News

Updated on 18 August 2010

As the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government reaches 100 days, Who Knows Who asks if it is still filled with shining, happy people - or are the fault lines beginning to show?

Wedding cake (Getty)

Politics is a mix of ideology, pragmatism and personality. This was never clearer than in the negotiations that preceded the formation of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in May of this year.

Ideologically, many before 11 May would have suggested a more comfortable fit between the Lib Dems and Labour. As for political pragmatism and the "art of the possible", the roadmap for any new government, coalition or otherwise, was circumscribed by the need to address the budget deficit.

That leaves personality. And what has emerged over the last 100 days is the extent to which the rapport between politicians - or the lack of it - has determined the nature of the new government and, to an extent, the direction the new government has taken.

Rewind to the five days after 6 May. David Cameron stole the initiative by publicly inviting the Liberal Democrats to enter into discussions. But the Lib Dems talked to Labour as well. What we know about those talks is that, in the words of Peter Mandelson, Nick Clegg found Labour’s leader "a bit Gordon-ish".

By contrast, Cameron and Clegg were "not quite two peas in a pod but they come from very similar backgrounds", according to Sir Menzies Campbell. Although they hardly knew each other, they got on well. Their empathy undoubtedly eased the path to coalition.

Indeed, the last three months have been notable for the expressions of admiration passing back and forth between the Tories and the Lib Dems. If fault lines have emerged, they have appeared members of the same party.

Universities minister David Willetts set the tone in June when he said the coalition "has actually strengthened Cabinet government as more issues are debated between colleagues".

And so the perceived antipathy between Business Secretary Vince Cable (Lib Dem Treasury spokesman before the election) and Chancellor George Osborne has vanished into air.

Cable had been seen as Labour's natural ally, particularly in his wish to curb the powers of banks and to moderate the speed of deficit reduction. But he now says of the Tories: "I've been pleasantly surprised that they're not as I'd envisaged them." Of the chancellor, he has developed "substantial respect", and claims: "We work together well."

Osborne has been just as effusive about the Lib Dems. When David Laws resigned as chief secretary to the Treasury at the end of May, he said: "It was as if he had been put on earth to do the job." David Cameron called Laws an "honourable man".

Like David Laws at the Treasury, many see Iain Duncan Smith's role at Work & Pensions as something "his whole political life has built up to". He is charged with leading a progressive "bonfire of the benefits" that will target the middle classes.

Duncan Smith should have a firm ally in Steve Webb, his Lib Dem colleague at DWP, of whom he has said: "I could not have asked for a better minister, Conservative or Liberal Democrat."

The problem is, he is bidding for a lot of money to fund the up-front costs of his welfare plans: £3.2bn, according to Centre for Social Justice estimates. But that brings him into inevitable conflict with the Treasury and with George Osborne.

The chancellor has already skirmished with Defence Secretary Dr Liam Fox over who foots the £20bn bill to replace Trident, which is normally funded separately from the defence budget. George Osborne told Channel 4 News this week that Trident's costs would be met by the MoD, although Dr Fox has warned against playing "fast and loose with the country’s defences".

The ideological fluidity of this government has been reinforced by the appointment of three Labour stalwarts to prominent coalition positions. Today Nick Clegg announced that Alan Milburn, a new Labour Blairite, is to become "social mobility czar". The deputy prime minister was at pains to stress that the former health secretary would not be joining the government, but the news will anger Labour and Tory traditionalists.

In June the coalition announced that maverick Labour MP Frank Field would lead a review into poverty in the UK. Later that month it emerged former work and pensions secretary John Hutton was to chair an inquiry into the cost of public sector pensions.

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