The Future

As its New Year, I thought I would make a stab at some predictions for the coming year.

Firstly, I suspect the Con Dem coalition will hang together despite the harm it is doing the Liberal Democrats.  They have lost their (always illusory) reputation for integrity.  They are attacking many of the priniciples that their long standing supporters hold dear, and there are signs that their parliamentary party is beginning to fall apart under the pressure.  They may well fail to win in Oldham, lose badly in the local elections in May and lose the referendum on the alternative vote.  Nevertheless, I expect them to continue to hang in there with the Tories, because breaking apart has too great a risk of causing a general election where they get slaughtered.  As Benjamin Franklin said: "We must all hang together, or hang separately."

Whether Sarah Teather manages to continue avoiding publicity and engagements during the year is more doubtful.  She already looks weak, as her absurd interview with Sky News "on her way out" showed.  She will start having to engage with her critics at some point, rather than just running away from them as at present.

In the Council, I hope the onset of our new waste management system will be a success.  A lot is riding on it.  We should also be able to come out with some other good environmental initiatives during the year, including in the transport field, and a strong target for carbon emissions.  The big challenge for the Council as a whole will be the budget.  We have enough savings for this year, but we need to develop some for next year's round of central government cuts, and we need to find a means to control overspend in the Social Services.  Altogether it is going to be the most challenging time that the Council has faced since the 1980s.