David Blackburn

Clegg’s conditions

Nick Clegg is the rage of the papers this morning. His interview with the Spectator is trailed across the media and the Independent has an interview where Clegg once again lists the four demands that would be his initial negotiating tests for backing a minority government. They are:

– Raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 through taxes on the rich.
– An education spending boost for the poorest in society through the ‘pupil premiums’.
– A switch to a Green economy, less dependent on financial services. 
– Political reforms at Westminster, including electoral reform.

What to make of that quartet? There is much that is sensible, much that is not, and still more that is unworkable. An economy that is driven by enterprise in emergent technology, a very exportable commodity, is self-evidently sensible and has the support of both Cameron and Mandelson.





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