Heled Duffett: Where's the coalition of the sexes?

With most of the key cabinet posts now announced, and other positions coming at a trickle, the new government so far looks overwhelmingly male.

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I dislike tokenism - the best person should have the job. But I'd be surprised if all the male Conservative MPs were better qualified for cabinet posts than all the female MPs, whether Conservative or Liberal Democrat.

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After all the media focus on the leaders' wives during the election campaign it would be especially fitting to see elected women making a real difference in government.

The agreement includes an awful lot of Lib Dem policies, including lots of versions of what appeared in our top 4: more money for disadvantaged children, lots on sustainability, lots on fairness in tax.

But just how this all works will only be revealed in the fullness of time.

And certainly many of us have grave concerns about what happens next. Can the Tory right really be kept happy with the agreement? And the Lib Dem left? and our own members?

The devil is always in the detail of these things and how generic aspirations are actually implemented.  Without a lot more detail cast in stone the Lib Dems are hostage to the Tory's good faith and unwillingness to use their majority to ram things through cabinet.

It all still reads like a composite election manifesto than an actual five year programme for Government.  Governing is about more than PR and policy implementation is about more than vague aspirations.  I suspect that the Lib Dems inexperience of Government will cost them as times moves on, events take their toll, and the Civil Service meat grinder turns all their grand aspirations (limited as they are) into paltry tokenism.

The other thing that bothers me is Clegg's lack of a substantive portfolio with a serious department to back him up.  Other Senior Lib Dems have done well to get strong portfolios - Business and Banking (Cable), Environment and Climate Change (Huhne) and Treasury (Laws).  But 5 out of 22 isn't much and what substantive policy role will Clegg have - or is he just the front of house PR guy?

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Liberal Democrat Voice: What Lib Dem members think about talking to the Tories: LDV poll results (10 May 2010)

Lib Dem Voice has been conducting a survey today of party members registered on our members' forum asking them for their views of the discussions that have been taking place between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Here's what you've told us ...

• 89% support Nick Clegg's decision to let the party with the most votes and most seats try and form a government;
  
• 90% support Nick Clegg's decision to enter into discussions with the Conservative party on that basis;
  
• 80% say that significant progress on electoral reform is a deal-breaker;
  
• 98% rate Nick Clegg's performance during the campaign as effective or very effective, with Vince Cable scoring 85%.

1. If they get a referendum on AV and win it, that will help them along as a party, (and the proposals for the elected 2nd Chamber don't hurt either). Of course, if they get AV, it's unlikely Britain will get any further down the electoral reform route for another 100 years or so.

2. If Cable can push real banking reform that's a real vote-winner, in addition to being incredibly important.

3. In the long term, if they can push the greening of the economy that is of course vital for the country, but the electoral payback may take a long time...
   

Sunday Mirror excl: Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith has appointed controversial Philippa Stroud as a special adviser

Former Labour Minister Frank Field is to `defect' to David Cameron's new coalition Government by taking on the role of Britain's `Poverty Tsar', it was revealed last night.

Social conservative Mr Field is to lead a major review into poverty as part of Mr Cameron's promise to tackle what he calls `Broken Britain' - social breakdown, rising crime and the benefits dependency culture.

The move is a major boost in Mr Cameron's attempt to show that his new Liberal-Conservative coalition can command the support of elements of the Labour Party.

It is well known that the election of John Bercow as Speaker last year provoked a considerable amount of ill-feeling in the House of Commons.

Chosen almost entirely by the Labour Party, his election was not a vote of confidence in the man, but was used in the words of a Labour whip to `stick it to the Tories'.

On Tuesday, the House will return to business and the first job of all MPs will be to re-elect the Speaker of the House.

We will be summoned by Black Rod to the House of Lords, to hear a commission read out, instructing us to go back to the Commons and elect a Speaker. We will then take our seats and a backbencher will propose that we appoint Mr Bercow to the Speaker's chair.

The documents, instructing senior officials at the Department of Communities and Local Government how to woo their new bosses, give a checklist of what are called "hot button", Tory-friendly words, to be dropped into conversation whenever possible. These include "families," "radical," "neighbourhoods" and "progressive."

The briefing - to be kept strictly from ministers - shows that DCLG officials are worried about their new bosses. "Do they like us? Want to work with us?" it asks, adding: "There may be challenge over our part in what they see as failed policies/ delivery

To overcome this, civil servants are told to "talk of efficiencies / value for money without prompting" and advised to deploy blatant flattery, with suggested phrases including: "Congratulations! I had so much confidence in you, I might get complacent!"

The documents order mandarins to "smile!... Lean forward!... Be interesting!" They are told to engage in "supportive listening," and "take cues from the Secretary of State." Officials are advised that "eye contact [is] the real currency."

PPS An interesting game for conoisseurs of British political "third party" trivia is to spot the former SDP members in the current cabinet. Interestingly, they are by no means all to be found among the Lib Dems. As best I can tell, the list is as follows (Cabinet Ministers in bold):

Ex-SDP Tories:

Andrew Lansley (Sec State, Health), Greg Clark (Minister, Decentralisation), Chris Grayling (Minister at Dept of Work & Pensions), Stephen O'Brien (Minister at Dept for Int'l Development).

And ex-SDP Lib Dems:

Vince Cable (Sec State, Business), Chris Huhne (Sec State, Energy & Climate Change), (Lord) Tom McNally (Minister of State, Ministry of Justice) Paul Burstow (Minister at Dept of Health)

Estimates in the hall, where about 1,500 Lib Dem members debated the coalition, suggested that about 50 conference representatives voted against the motion endorsing the agreement: the rest of the hundreds eligible to vote were all in favour.

Here's some of what Lib Dem Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, had to say immediately after the vote:

It is five days since I accepted the position of Deputy Prime Minister. Just five days, and we now know there will be no ID cards, no third runway at Heathrow, no more fingerprinting in schools without parents' consent, no more child detention.

"Changes Liberal Democrats have spent months, years, campaigning for, are happening. Promises we were making to people on their doorsteps just a few weeks ago are becoming realities.