‘ConDem’ coalition announced in UK

The deal between the two parties, which are ideologically opposed on issues such as engagement with Europe, marks the country’s first coalition government since Winston Churchill’s wartime coalition 70 years ago.

Cameron has already moved into the Prime Minister’s residence at Number 10 Downing Street, 90 minutes after Brown’s departure. He becomes Britain’s 53rd Prime Minister, and its youngest in 200 years, while leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg will serve as the Deputy Prime Minister.

Cameron promised he and Clegg would put their political differences aside – of which there are a great many – and seek to rebuild public trust in politics. The catchphrase of the new government would be: “Those who can, should, those who cannot, we will always help”, Cameron said.

Clegg received backing for the deal from his party last night, and committed to a five year coalition government with five of the 23 members of cabinet coming from his party.

The agreement also forced the Conservatives to make concessions on many of their policies. Key among these was a move towards raising tax thresholds for the wealthy, and a referendum on political reform – namely an alternative voting system that would force elections on the House of Lords.

Conservative plans for welfare reform, immigration caps and independent state schools will remain, while disagreements still exist over nuclear power plants and the Trident nuclear deterrent.

The deal marks a bitter day for Labour. Despite losing seats five seats in the election, the Liberal Democrats have a five year opportunity to take control of left-wing politics in the UK, leaving Labour completely offside in the next election.

Brown’s resignation was Labour’s last card to play, hoping that their own negotiations for a Lib-Lab coalition would taste sweeter with Brown out of the way.

But the jubilation among both the parties now in government masks widespread dissatisfaction in the ranks of both. United only in their dislike of Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are fundamentally different creatures and it will be a test of British politics whether one’s small-government approach will tolerate the welfare innovation of the other.

The change in government is a net gain for the Maldives. The Conservative party played a key role in training the ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) from street campaigners into a political party, and pressured the British government to condemn alleged human rights abuses occurring in the country.

“Their human rights group took up our case and put pressure on the British government. At their conference they put me in touch with centre-right parties from Serbia to Sri Lanka and gave me a platform from which to tell the world about what was happening in the Maldives,” President Mohamed Nasheed said, in an interview with the Telegraph newspaper in January 2009.

It led a visit by a Conservative delegation including vice-president Richard Spring and recently-crowned Redditch MP Karen Lumley to give the MDP advice on campaigning and “strategic alliance building”.

“They deserve our support and they will certainly get it. We want to keep a spotlight on events unfolding in the Maldives,” Spring said, at the time.

After the election, Lumley wrote in the Birmingham Advertiser that she “was humbled by people who just wanted a better future for themselves and their families. I am so proud that I was able to a very small part of that change.”