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Coalition Government first 100 days: How was it for you?
The formation of the first coalition government since the Second World War headed by the youngest Prime Minister in 200 years was a political earthquake.
100 days later and the after shocks show no sign of letting up.
Political Editor Mark Hookham reports…
David Cameron has taken to the job of being Prime Minister with surprising ease.
Whether it's answering Prime Minister's questions in the Commons, holding press conferences with the President Obama or being quizzed by members of the public, the 43-year-old has appeared confident, relaxed and self-assured – everything his brooding and faded predecessor wasn't.
* Click here to read YEP political editor Mark Hookham's Westminster blog.
After the chaos and paranoia of the last few years, 10 Downing Street is apparently a workplace transformed.
* Click here a round up of 2010 YEP General Election coverage.
Staff no longer receive early morning emails from a workaholic boss prone to flying into volcanic rages.
Instead, the new PM reportedly starts work at around 8am, is courteous with staff and is happy for big decisions to be made by ministerial committees.
At the heart of this new government is a relationship between PM and deputy, which started tentatively during the coalition negotiations, was strengthened by the light-hearted press conference the garden of No.10 and has continued to grow with the help of regular text messaging.
David Cameron and Nick Clegg have shrugged off the jibes about Brokeback Mountain and seem to have forged a productive working relationship.
And their spirit of pragmatism is spreading. The youthful teams of Tory and Lib Dem advisers genuinely like each other, as do at least some of the MPs.
Pudsey Tory MP Stuart Andrew says political rivals in Westminster have decided to bury the hatchet. "I haven't come across any animosity at all. There is a willingness to make this work."
But away from all the cross party-backslapping, the over-arching event of this government so far has been the austerity budget in June, when George Osborne announced an increase in VAT to 20 per cent and severe welfare cuts.
The Chancellor also confirmed that unprotected Whitehall departments, including transport and local government, were expected to slash spending in future by around 25 per cent.
This belt squeezing is to prevent the UK plunging into the kind of debt crisis which has gripped Greece, according to Mr Osborne.
And the cuts have already started to bite in West Yorkshire.
Plans for the Holt Park Wellbeing Centre – a 30m health, leisure and community complex – have been shelved and a flagship project to redevelop Holbeck's Tower works has been mothballed.
A 300m plan to rebuild or refit 22 schools in Leeds, due to take place in the later stages of the Building Schools for the Future programme, has been abandoned, along with proposals to transform five schools in Wakefield and 22 in Kirklees.
We learnt this week that 20 children's playgrounds in Leeds and Wakefield could also be scrapped.
The axe also dangles ominously over the Leeds trolleybus scheme, 15m plans for a new entrance at Leeds rail station and a 150m flood defence project in the city.
Meanwhile, West Yorkshire's reliance on public sector employment makes large redundancies a certainty – a study by a leading consultancy group has predicted that 8,800 public sector posts are likely to be lost in Leeds during the next six years.
Business leaders in Leeds say they recognise the need for the new government to tackle the deficit – but they worry about the impact locally.
Ian Williams, director of policy at Leeds Chamber of Commerce, said: "The Coalition Government faced a mountain of challenges when it came into power 100 days ago. The nation's finances were in need very of urgent attention and the Government has already made progress in addressing this issue.
"Whilst the Chamber can understand some of the action that the Government has taken...there is concern about the wider impacts that the cuts will have on the local authorities and their services, as well as other public sector agencies and departments."
Meanwhile, Labour MPs in the region have bounced back after the party's mauling and are now on the attack.
Hemsworth MP Jon Trickett said: "The coalition's idea is that somehow the private sector will take up the jobs lost in the public sector. I simply do not believe the private sector is strong enough.
"If we cut too soon the people who will pay for the crisis will not be the bankers, it will be the ordinary people of Yorkshire."
The two new Tory MPs in Leeds are preparing themselves for the inevitable local backlash. Stuart Andrew said: "People do recognise the need for cuts. The problem is when it is something that is important to them personally.
"I know it's going to be difficult but sometimes in politics you cannot do things to be popular – you have to do things because they are right."
Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg know they have to offer more than just painful budget cuts. This explains why the government has moved at jaw-dropping speed to overhaul nearly all the major public services at the same time.
In education, Michael Gove has railroaded legislation through which will create a new wave of academies and Swedish-style "free schools".
Theresa May, the Home Secretary, is sweeping away police authorities and bringing in directly-elected police supremos, while Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has declared that prison does not work.
Over at the Department of Health, the normally cautious Andrew Lansley has shocked the NHS by announcing plans to put billions of pounds of taxpayers' money directly into the hands of GPs. This reform alone (which was not in the Tory manifesto) is the biggest upheaval since the NHS was formed in 1948.
Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith's creation of a single work programme with a much simpler benefit regime is, again, a massive job.
Tellingly, these are mainly Tory policies.
The Lib Dems have undoubtedly scored their own policy successes (more people taken out of income tax, a referendum on the Alternative Vote and increased schools funding for poorer pupils) but they have also seen their opinion poll ratings plummet to just 16 per cent.
Although some Lib Dem MPs and activists are unsettled, their dismal poll rating actually makes it less likely that they will walk away from the coalition (and risk wipe out at an election).
The bigger threat to David Cameron is from his own disgruntled troops – those right wing MPs who are unhappy at a string of compromises the PM has made to keep the Lib Dems on board.
Among the potential Tory rebels is Shipley MP Philip Davies, who is critical of the referendum on electoral reform and Ken Clarke's more liberal criminal justice policy.
He said he "fully expects" the coalition to last five years, but he added: "We are still in the honeymoon period. Any relationship can survive a honeymoon. It's how well it copes when things are a lot tougher that is important."
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Weather for Leeds
Thursday 24 May 2012
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Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
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