Summary
Coalitions are a funny business and uncharted territory for those in Government, as Tory Local Government secretary Eric Pickles found out when he walked into an election battle with the Liberal Democrats in Solihull. There was no question of the Tories going easy on their Liberal Democrat friends in the Solihull Council by- election in Olton last week and larger-than-life Yorkshireman Pickles waded in to give campaigners a final push.
And the results were there to see as a 1,000-plus vote majority in 2010 for the Lib Dems, who share power in Solihull with Labour, was slashed to just nine with the Tories coming a close second. But Mr Pickles was happy to go toe-to-toe with his national coalition friends on the local beat and believes it is a good thing for democracy.See the full content of this document
Extract
Pickles: More Unites the Coalition Than Divides It
He may also have been smarting from articles depicting a feud between himself and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg over the Liberal Democrats' support for wide-ranging local taxation powers...
See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
