Tom Richmond: Nick Clegg shows his party means business

They are misguided. What is the alternative? A return to power for a discredited Labour Party, in cahoots with other parties, after Liam Byrne, the outgoing Chief Secretary, admitted that Gordon Brown's government had spent every last penny? The rigmarole, and uncertainty, of a second election?

I thought not.

It's why the coalition between David Cameron and Nick Clegg is the only viable option – and, so far, their businesslike approach is proving a refreshing change to Labour's relentless PR spin.

Yes, the deal has meant compromises being made by each party, but one has to remember that single-party governments are always "broad churches" with divergent views at their core. Just remember how Tony Blair and Gordon Brown fought tooth and nail over Labour policy – and they were the key leaders. Any disagreement between Cameron and Clegg will be mild in comparison.

By teaming up on the 6bn deficit reduction programme, with the very astute Lib Dem Treasury chief secretary David Laws working in tandem with Chancellor George Osborne, the new Government has taken some of the political poison out of the spending cuts.

Of course, this is unlikely to go down well with some Lib Dems – such as Charles Kennedy, a discredited former leader, who is clearly going to be an outspoken critic of the new arrangement. Kennedy's untimely intervention smacked, frankly, of jealousy from a man who will never get the chance to sit round the Cabinet table.

Yet, as one Lib Dem MP put it to me this week, does the party simply want to remain on the political sidelines, criticising the government of the day, or does it want to try and implement some of its policies, such as greater fairness to the tax system?

He says the easier decision for Clegg would have been to sit this one out, and not actually be part of any government.

Yet, by joining forces with the Tories, Clegg has shown that the Liberal Democrats want to be taken seriously – even if it means a very uncomfortable ride.

CAN anyone explain why Lembit Opik is being afforded VIP treatment by the 24-hour news networks so he can provide a running commentary on the new government?

If my memory serves me correctly, this serial political nuisance lost his Montgomeryshire seat on election night. I can only assume the former Lib Dem MP needs the money – despite his generous resettlement grant from Parliament.

He is, of course, the politician who was forced to pay 2,499 for a 42-inch plasma television himself after he bought it when the Commons had broken up for the 2005 election. He must need the money from his new media career for a new TV.

THIS is the kind of stunt that the new Government needs to avoid. Retired Labour backbencher Chris Mullin recalls the invitation he received from Alistair Darling, the then Social Security Secretary, in October 1999 when the original 100 winter fuel allowance for pensioners was launched.

"So far, so good, but the missive goes on 'To make a real story for your local paper you are invited to bring along a pensioner'," Mullin helpfully discloses in A View From The Foothills, his brilliant diaries.

"It gets worse. 'Speed is essential...If you are bringing a pensioner, please warn them there is no time to talk to Alistair and no

autographs...' Yuk."

My advice to David Cameron and Nick Clegg would be to read the diaries forthwith. They could easily have been entitled "How not to run a government".

I HAVE no time for people, like Margaret Beckett and Harriet Harman, who criticised the dearth of women in David Cameron's Cabinet.

The way that they conducted themselves in office was hardly conducive to inspiring a new generation of female politicians.

I also disagree with Lynne Featherstone whose first utterance, as Equalities Minister, was to describe the coalition top team as "male and pale".

Can anyone name a female Conservative or Liberal Democrat politician who is excluded from the Cabinet? I cannot, though Rotherham-born Treasury Minister Justine Greening is clearly going places.

Ministers should be appointed on merit. Margaret Thatcher was never elected leader of the Conservative Party because she was a woman.

It was because, as one of her admirers quaintly put it: "She was the best man for the job."

IF Labour want more women in the top jobs, why isn't more to be done to persuade Morley and Outwood MP Ed Balls to step aside from the leadership race – and make way for his wife Yvette Cooper, the Pontefract MP?

A COUPLE of parish notices that highlight the best and worst of Yorkshire society.

I had the misfortune to travel on a recent early afternoon train from Leeds to Guiseley. All the seats were covered in discarded drinks bottles, food cartons and such like. Why can't passengers pick up their own litter?

And, when I queried the absence of any kind cleaning service with Northern Rail, the conductor said abruptly: "It's not our job."

Contrast this depressing experience with a walk through Guiseley where volunteers were tidying up the public flowerbeds and planting new bulbs – an example of public service at its best.

If only this spirit was more forthcoming on the railways.