Coalition is a tricky business, full of compromise and connivance. Emblazoned across the front page of the Sunday Times (£) is the news that Control Orders are to be scrapped. A victory for Nick Clegg, we are told, won to nurture wounded Liberal Democrats and preserve the coalition.
The Liberal Democrat 2010 manifesto maintained that Control Orders would be abolished and many senior Liberal Democrats have been volubly opposed to Lord Carlisle’s report into Control Orders, which was understood to propose their retention.
Certainly, Nick Clegg needs an outright victory on policy. The Oldham East by-election draws near, whilst the tuition fees debacle remains clear in the memory, harsh austerity measures such as the VAT rise will soon be perceptible in every day life and the AV referendum promises to be bloody, at least.
A Lib Dem victory then, except that Lord Carlisle is a Liberal Democrat peer and numerous Conservative MPs were vehement in their condemnation of Control Orders.
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