Tories and Lib Dems will want to break the rules if there's another Coalition

The Coalition has been much more of a success than anyone could have predicted when it formed in 2010. It hasn’t just held together for spending cuts, but has passed important reforms to welfare and education. It’s important to repeat that now, when the partnership is growing increasingly tired and snappy. The parties spent yesterday pecking at one another over whether or not to introduce tougher mandatory sentences for repeat knife offences. They won’t produce a Queen’s Speech bursting with legislative excitements, either.

But one of the things that this Coalition has shown us is that it’s not just the policy red lines that make a difference to whether a government of more than one party can be radical: it’s the plumbing too. And one important piece of plumbing that the Conservatives don’t seem to have fully understood the implications of when it was put in place is the Home Affairs Committee.