Coalition 'dharma' to the fore in UK

It is one year since the David Cameron government came to office after the 2010 elections threw up a hung parliament. Clegg’s party, the Liberal Democrats, was the junior partner in the coalition, and has since struggled to explain agreeing to what are perceived as Conservative policies. In a speech, Clegg sought to explain that he could not implement his party’s election promises simply because it did not win a majority, and in a coalition, compromises had to be made.

There is much criticism that Clegg and his party are being forced to acquiesce to Conservative policies.Despite growing differences, both Cameron and Clegg have insisted that the coalition will last its full term until 2015.

Clegg said: “I lead a party of 57 MPs out of 650. Much though I might often wish to, I can’t act as if I won a landslide. To deliver on all our policies, we need a Liberal Democrat majority government. That didn’t happen. This is something the Liberal Democrats understand. It has in some ways been harder for our coalition partners, who are not, to put it politely, firm believers in plural politics”.

Having receiving much of the flak for the Cameron government’s funding cuts and other unpopular policies, Liberal Democrats suffered major losses during last week’s local elections, when it lost nearly 750 councillors across Britain.