Labour will have to grow up eventually
John Kampfner writes in the Independent about the first 100 days of the Coalition government:
Clegg is taking the long view. The Government, and his party’s role in it, will be best judged in five years’ time, assuming the Coalition holds out that long. Yet, as his aides admit, it is essential for the Lib Dems to mark their ground. They have to show how they are making a difference.
The scorecard on one area in particular – civil liberties – is better than most people realise: the scrapping of ID cards and the ContactPoint children’s Database; the outlawing of finger-printing of kids at school without permission and of child detention in immigration cases. The decision to end section 44 stop-and-search powers for police – which will provide more protection for ethnic minorities and others – was similarly eye-catching, as was the acceptance of a court ruling that gay people cannot be deported if they faced persecution in their home country.
