When will the government be mugged by reality?

One of the most interesting questions is whether the Tories and the Lib Dems will be able to move from the talking points to the action points. Besides Ken Clarke, Francis Maude and William Hague none of the ministers have any previous government experience.

They know government from the outside, from the sidelines, from parliamentary questions but not from the inside. It will be really interesting to see how the Cameron-Clegg government copes not just with the issues where they can set the agenda – like police reform – but where the Goverment is mugged daily by reality – like Pakistan or Yemen. I suspect they will find Labour acted not so much out of incompetence but in desperation.

They will also find that because a government wills something does not make it so. A number of ministers will benefit tremendously from the comparison to their predecessors. I mean Bob Ainsworth v Liam Fox? No competetion really.