UK coalition government: so far so good?

The UK coalition government, formed between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, seems to be doing reasonably well, since coming to power. It’s possible that all new governments have a honeymoon period, when the electorate will be quite lenient on their shortcomings and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Mr Laws, seen as a key architect of the Conservative-LibDem pact, resigned from the government in the early days, but this has not caused a huge amount of problem for the coalition. Mr Cameron looks quite prime ministerial. He did not react rashly in the aftermath of the shootings in Cumbria, as perhaps others would have done, for example, by promising immediate legislation. His speech in the House of Commons following the publication of the Bloody Sunday Inquiry was dignified.

The emergency budget, as expected, contained a lot of pain. However, measures of this magnitude would have been necessary whoever was in power. What the shape of the economy will be, no one can predict with certainty, but it did send out a message to the markets that the government takes the issues of sovereign debt seriously. In economics, it often seems that everything boils down to psychology, and perceptions and fears are more important than what is actually happening. The government has nipped any loss of confidence in the bud.

Early days still.