Following my post of Monday, I was reflecting on the difficulties of the Liberal Democrats in their coalition. Nick Clegg explicitly rejected the idea of playing out Tory / Liberal democrat differences in public, although that appears to be exactly what Sarah Teather is doing as she struggles to justify herself to voters who thought she was a leftwing alternative.
Her piece in "First", the Local Government Association newsletter, argues that the pupil premium is a "real Liberal Democrat achievement". My understanding is that there is real fear that it could end up in Brent getting less money for its pupils, in which case Sarah Teather will no doubt declare it was all down to the Tories.
At Conference, Clegg rightly claimed that the two coalition parties constantly claiming credit for the good, and placing blame for the bad on each other would "poison" the coalition. I think he is right. I also think that, being two rival parties one with a history of permanent opposition, they won't be able to help themselves.
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