Working already

One good thing to come out of the new coalition is that our unjust and intolerant policy of offering tax breaks to married couples has been dropped. I have stated here before how dreadful I believed this policy to be - if financial benefit happens to derive for married people from policies enacted for other reasons then fair enough but I found it utterly un-Conservative to seek to penalise those who may be less fortunate by offering a financial incentive directly linked to marriage.

It seemed like a sop to the right of the party and it was entirely wrong but the new PM needed to keep the right on board during the campaign and especially post-Lisbon Treaty ratification. If a light centrist touch is what the Lib Dems bring to this government – an ability to deflect any hard-right tendencies of the party – then perhaps this coalition business is no bad thing in the circumstances that we face.

Update 12/5: Seems like I spoke too soon and the married couple’s allowance is still in the work programme. The Lib Dems though will be able to vote against it and one assumes that with the support of the nationalists it would not pass.

Another welcome side-effect of the coalition is that I hope – and fully anticipate – that there will be no attempt in the lifetime of the coalition to re-animate the devisive and emotive practice of foxhunting. I love the countryside and I respect its traditions but this potato is simply to hot to be comfort food for the nation.