Fellow council members from the Labour benches take delight in twitting me about Liberal Democrats going into coalition with Conservatives in Westminster. I admit that I would prefer to have seen a “support-and-maintenance” agreement rather than full coalition (note that they tacitly accept that any arrangement with Gordon Brown was out of the question!). However, the number of ministerial posts, out of proportion to our voting strength in the Commons, and the list of achievements under the coalition agreement are impressive. I cannot do better than quote from the blog of Lynne Featherstone, now a junior minister at the Home Office:

Delivering on our promises

Fairer taxes
The Liberal Democrats promised to make the tax system fairer by ensuring no one pays tax on the first £10,000 they earn and closing loopholes that allow the wealthy to pay a smaller proportion of their income in tax than people on low and middle incomes.

The Coalition Government has already taken a huge step towards achieving this by raising the income tax threshold by £1,000 in last month’s Budget and reforming Capital Gains Tax. The income tax threshold will continue to be increased every year during this Parliament.

The Liberal Democrats also promised to restore the earnings link to pensions, which will now happen.

We also promised wide scale banking reform, including a banking levy to make sure that banks pay for the financial support they received from the taxpayer. The levy, which will raise £2.5bn, was announced in the Budget.

Fair politics
The Liberal Democrats promised a comprehensive clean up of the rotten political system. This is now a key part of the Coalition’s agenda for which Nick Clegg has responsibility.

The plans include:
• A referendum on the Alternative Vote to take place in May 2011
• The right to sack MPs guilty of serious misconduct
• Fixed term parliaments of five years
• Reform of party funding
• Moving towards a wholly or partly elected House of Lords, elected by proportional representation
• A statutory register of lobbyists
• A radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups

A green, sustainable economy
The Liberal Democrats promised a raft of policies to help the economy recover and make sure that we build a new green and sustainable economy fit for the 21st century.

A huge number of these policies will now become a reality, including:
• Tough action to tackle the deficit
• Reform of the banking system to make sure that banks lend to viable British businesses
• An independent commission on separating investment and retail banking
• Measures to improve energy efficiency in homes and businesses
• Support for low carbon energy production and an increase the target for energy from renewable sources
• Enabling the creation of a national high speed rail network
• The creation of a smart electricity grid and the roll-out of smart meters
• The creation of a green investment bank
• The establishment of an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with Carbon Capture and Storage Technology
• Replacing Air Passenger Duty with a per-plane duty
• The provision of a floor price for carbon, as well as working to persuade the EU to move towards full auctioning of   ETS permits

Other Lib Dem policies that will now become a reality
The Liberal Democrats have long campaigned for the restoration of freedoms and civil liberties eroded under Labour and the rolling back of the surveillance state. A huge number of Lib Dem policies will now happen, including:
• The abolition of Identity Cards, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database
• The repeal of unnecessary laws
• Further regulation of CCTV
• The outlawing of finger-printing of children at school without permission
• Extending the Freedom of Information Act
• Ending child detention for immigration purposes

There are also a host of other Lib Dem policies that will now happen under the Coalition Government. These include:
• Fair compensation for Equitable Life victims
• The modernisation of the Royal Mail
• Flexible working and promotion of equal pay
• A commission on long-term reform of social care
• Cutting Quangos and government bureaucracy
• Implementing the recommendations of the Calman Commission
• A referendum on further powers for the Welsh Assembly

That list underplays the major step forward on the state pension. Labour had thirteen years to restore pensions to their pre-Thatcher value. Within its first term, the coalition government has done that and more. There is now a “triple lock”, such that old age pensions will be raised by the earnings index, prices index or 2.5 per cent, whichever is the highest.

It has been put to me that the Conservatives really want to do away with the state and that there is a hidden agenda behind the coalition agreement. I agree that there is that strand of thinking in the Conservative Party, just as there are some unreconstructed Marxist-Leninists in the Labour Party. However, you have only to listen to the comments from the reactionaries on the Conservative backbenches to realise that Cameron is the most liberal Conservative leader since Edward Heath. (If only he shared Heath’s enthusiasm for Europe!)

We certainly share with the Conservatives a distaste for large central administration. There is a move in England to devolve more powers to local authorities and to micro-manage less (though I note that Eric Pickles, the local government minister, immediately spoilt that by announcing a freeze on council tax). It is to be hoped that the Welsh Assembly Government will also trust local authorities more. A good start would be to take advantage of the powers given by the Housing Local Competence Order (disgracefully held up by Labour in Westminster until the general election) due to be approved by Her Majesty today.

Where the Labour leadership of Neath Port Talbot CBC and the opposition do agree is that local government will be expected to bear its fair share of cuts and possibly more. It is clear that this would have been the case even under a Labour government.

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