Is there much common ground between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats?
Quite a lot. They agree on the need to cut the deficit, although they disagree on when to start. There are also areas of common ground on political reform, civil liberties, such as scrapping identity cards, the environment and even Mr Cameron’s vision of a “Big Society” chimes with the Lib Dems’ instinct to transfer power from the central state to local communities. The Tories’ flagship schools reforms have support from some Lib Dems, although the party gives the policy less emphasis and wants more autonomy for all schools, and both agree on the principle of giving extra money to schools that teach children from poor families and fewer constraints on teachers and heads. Both oppose a third runway at Heathrow and other airport expansion. What are the potential deal-breakers? David Cameron has already identified Europe, immigration and replacing the Trident nuclear deterrent as his red lines. But he was careful to rule out giving more powers to Brussels, rather than talking of repatriati
