A new phase

Now the election is over, I'll take down the manifestos etc. After all, they won't be of much use to anyone now. I will link to the coalition agreement as that could be a useful reference document in the future.


The Cabinet and ministerial appointments are mostly good, but there's a couple of real disappointments. Particularly good appointments (I think) are Iain Duncan Smith at Work and pensions, who has done hard work in identifying the causes of poverty rather than just seeking to create a dependent society, and those like Hague, Gove and Fox who have taken on the department they were shadowing. I think I heard Cameron say on the radio that "stability" and a long term outlook must apply to ministerial appointments as well as cost cuts, and I hope that he means it and ministers will be allowed to stay long enough to learn and manage rather than just create headlines. The exception to that stability is Osborne: although Clarke will be a good figure for political reform, I would have preferred to see him as Chancellor simply because he is more credible and has a track record of previously dealing with economic problems. Especially with Cable as Business secretary. Lastly it's hard to see Theresa may being tough enough to be home secretary, a job better suited to Chris Huhne.

As far as policies go, again, they seem pretty reasonable; in fact I think the combined tax policies are better. My worries are the retention of FSA, although macro supervision will move to the Bank of England, and energy security (ie will nuclear power stations get built?).