 Full text of speech delivered by Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP
Deputy Prime Minister
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As of today, the new Coalition Government is 100 days old. Inevitably there is a plenty of discussion about our performance to date. Everyone will have their own view about the start we have made.
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 Edited by John Springford
June 2010
The UK’s new coalition government is performing the first incisions in some drastic surgery to the state. The fiscal consolidation, which will take several years, will require a delicate – and highly political – balancing of competing interests, as it entails a transfer of wealth from taxpayers, government workers, welfare recipients, to debt markets, but in a way that prevents any party from walking out on the deal.
Other countries have been here before. Dealing with debt: lessons from abroad brings together four authors, from Canada, Ireland, Sweden, and Australia, to discuss how their governments cut and reshaped the state in recent years, and what social and economic costs and benefits ensued.
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Julian Astle
March 2010
The Conservatives have been talking up their chances of doing a deal with the Liberal Democrats if the general election fails to deliver them a majority. Conservative shadow business secretary Ken Clarke has even suggested that “Nick Clegg is a conservative”. David Cameron meanwhile regularly describes himself as a “liberal” and has claimed that on a range of policy issues, “there’s barely a cigarette paper between us”.
But according to a new report from CentreForum, the liberal think tank, the two parties’ similarities are being wildly overstated, as are the chances of them working together in a formal coalition if the Tories are returned as the largest party in a hung parliament.
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Giles Wilkes
March 2010
‘Quantitative easing’ was meant to boost private spending by pumping billions of pounds into the economy. But CentreForum argues that it has done little for ordinary people and businesses. Without serious reform, it will prove powerless in the face of a second dip into recession.
In early 2009, with interest rates at 0.5 per cent and the deficit hitting record levels, ‘QE’ was the only policy left for fighting the recession. By trying to increase the money supply directly, the Bank of England aimed to increase bank lending, lift up asset prices and restore confidence. In many ways it worked. Banks that were almost insolvent are now recording large profits, the equity market has soared, and house prices have reversed a frightening decline. It has clearly helped the government to issue a huge amount of debt relatively cheaply.
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