United the Coalition stands (From The Northern Echo)

United the Coalition stands

11:13am Thursday 12th January 2012 in Rob Merrick By Rob Merrick

THE release of Cabinet papers from 1981 was a reminder of all the startling similarities with the modern political age, but also of one revealing difference.

That landmark year, like 2011, also featured an economic crisis, savage spending cuts and inner-city riots, plus a cricketing triumph and even a popular Royal Wedding.

The New Year headlines were made by the revelation that Margaret Thatcher was urged to abandon riot-torn Liverpool to “managed decline”. Oh, and she bought her own ironing board, apparently.

But I was struck by the fact that one of the Cabinets wrestling with the wisdom of those harsh spending cuts was a coalition Cabinet, while the other was genuinely united.

Before you shout “that’s obvious”, let me explain it was the 1981 Cabinet, not the current one, that was scarred by fierce clashes between two very different political and economic beliefs.

In contrast, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats around David Cameron’s top table share a conviction that will, it now seems certain, keep them together through to 2015 and, possibly, beyond.

Let me take you back to July 1981. The Cabinet wets – Jim Prior, Peter Walker, Francis Pym and others – fiercely criticised the Chancellor’s plans for further deep cuts.

The released papers show they argued they would fail to tackle “the acute social and political problems now confronting the Government” and were “irrelevant to areas of urban dereliction and deprivation”.

The wets argued that “many people were now far more worried by the problems of unemployment than by levels of tax”, calling, unsuccessfully, for spending to create jobs.

Fast forward to 2012 and contrast with the shared conviction, among senior Tories and Lib Dems, that there is no alternative to George Osborne’s equally-controversial economic strategy.

The papers will not be released for many years, of course, but it is clear there is barely a murmur of Cabinet dissent over even deeper spending cuts, regardless of the gloomy economic news.

There are “blue-on-yellow” clashes over voting reform, immigration and Europe, but 20 months after the cuts were agreed, the Coalition partners are locked together as tightly as ever, on their shared course.

I was among those who, early on in the Coalition, wondered if the Lib Dems would seek an escape route from their nightmare, but I was mistaken.

The prospect of a Lib Dem election wipeout partly explains the Coalition’s stability, but so does a shared ideology – unlike the coalition of 1981.

THE DEBATE about the planned high-speed rail line (HS2) has descended into a farcical row over fantasy projections for the state of the economy in 20 years’ time.

Critics protest that the “benefit-cost ratio” has dipped from £1.60 for every £1 invested to just £1.40, blah, blah, blah... when these are wild stabs in the dark that are certain to be wrong.

What matters is that experts agree the existing North-South rail lines will be chronically overcrowded within 15 years, and that upgrading them will fail to solve the looming crisis, while being more costly and disruptive than a new line.

It is for that reason that opponents of HS2 have lost the argument, despite the regrettable reality that 225mph trains may never run all the way to Darlington and Durham.