I have had to pinch myself several times today. First at the sight of Nick Clegg being introduced as the Deputy Prime Minister and then again and again as the 4 other new Lib Dem Cabinet Ministers were announced. The much more significant excitement came when I read the joint agreement on policy. There are so many things I believe in passionately that will now be delivered in our new Government. As I read it, it became clear that this is a true Tory / Lib Dem Coalition, not the Lib Dems propping up a Tory Government. Our negotiators have done a fantastic job, and hats off to David Cameron for being so willing to compromise in so many areas.

For sure the next few years will be tough, the need to reduce the huge budget deficit racked up under Labour, will bring many challenges. But all those who voted Lib Dem will be able to see a really strong element of Lib Dem policies being enacted.  

Some Lib Dem supporters will initially have been unhappy that we are working with the Tories – I’d urge them to read the list below, if they do I’m sure they will think again. Then they may wish to join the surge in people, who have been joining the Lib Dems since last night.

The full list of the Lib Dem policies that have been agreed is below, but my personal highlights are:

• Raising personal allowances are raised to £10k to protect the low paid, before any cuts in Inheritance Tax
• The end to ID Cards
• Restoring the earnings link for basic pensions
• Introduction of a pupil premium for schools educating children from disadvantaged backgrounds
• Political Reform including a referendum on the introduction of the Alternative Vote
• A whole raft of measures to help build a greener economy and scrapping the third runway at Heathrow
• The end of the detention of the children for immigration purposes

Those are my personal highlights but here is the list in full:

A Fair Start for Children

·        Introduce a Pupil Premium to give all children a fair start. 

Fairer taxes and Economic Reform

• A substantial increase in the personal allowance from April 2011 with a longer term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective
• Reform of the banking system, ensuring a flow of lending to businesses and a Banking Levy. An independent commission on separating retail and investment banking.
• Capital Gains Tax reform

  Fair Politics

• Fixed-term parliaments and a referendum on electoral reform for the House of Commons.
• A power of recall, allowing voters to force a by-election where an MP was found to have engaged in serious wrongdoing.
• A wholly or mainly elected House of Lords on the basis of proportional representation.
• Giving Parliament control of its own agenda so that all bills are properly debated.
• Enacting the Calman Commission proposals and a referendum on further Welsh devolution.
• A statutory register of lobbyists.
• A limit on political donations and reform of party funding in order to remove big money from politics.
• Radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government and community groups.

A fair and sustainable future

• Establish a smart electricity grid and the roll-out of smart meters.
• Establish feed-in tariff systems in electricity
• A huge increase in energy from waste through anaerobic digestion.
• The creation of a green investment bank.
• The provision of home energy improvement paid for by the savings from lower energy bills.
• Retention of energy performance certificates when HIPs are scrapped.
• Measures to encourage marine energy.
• The establishment of an emissions performance standard that will prevent coal-fired power stations being built unless they are equipped with sufficient CCS to meet the emissions performance standard.
• Establish a high-speed rail network.
• Cancel the third runway at Heathrow and refuse additional runways at Gatwick and Stansted.
• Replace the Air Passenger Duty with a ‘per plane’ duty.
• The provision of a floor price for carbon, as well as efforts to persuade the EU to move towards full auctioning of ETS permits.
• Make the import or possession of illegal timber a criminal offence.
• Promote green spaces and wildlife corridors in order to halt the loss of habitats and restore biodiversity.
• Reduce central government carbon emissions by 10 per cent within 12 months.
• Increase the target for energy from renewable sources.

Pensions

• Restoration of the earnings link for the basic state pension from April 2011 with a “triple guarantee” that pensions are raised by the higher of earnings, prices or 2.5%.
• Phase out the default retirement age and end the rules requiring compulsory annuitisation at 75.
• Implement the Parliamentary and Health Ombudsman’s recommendation to make fair and transparent payments to Equitable Life policyholders.

Civil Liberties

• Scrap the ID card scheme, the National Identity register, the next generation of biometric passports and the ContactPoint Database.
• Outlaw the finger-printing of children at school without parental permission.
• Extend the scope of the Freedom of Information Act to provide greater transparency.
• Adopt the Scottish approach to stopping retention of innocent people’s DNA on the DNA database.
• Defend trial by jury.
• Restore rights to non-violent protest.
• A review of libel laws to protect freedom of speech.
• Safeguards against the misuse of anti-terrorism legislation.
• Further regulation of CCTV.
• Ending of storage of internet and email records without good reason.
• A new mechanism to prevent the proliferation of unnecessary new criminal offences.
• End the detention of children for immigration purposes.

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