Though I've been following the Con-Lib coalition progress to date, I've been reluctant to post on it so far, as they're just words being said and promises being made. Parliament isn't up and running yet. That for me is the real test of this government, will they use parliament effectively or will they use it like the conveyor belt it became under the previous government. I've been impressed so far...

THE Liberal Democrats have played down reports that they will not enter a coalition government with either of the two main parties in the event of a hung parliament.

Yesterday was an important day in local government as I and my ministerial colleagues were able to announce the two big planks of our approach to local government over the coming years – the Local Government Finance Settlement and the Localism Bill. They are huge milestones in the Coalition’s programme of reform, and will impact

"All this will do is raise Britain's debt to a level that will take a whole generation to work off" says Peer Steinbrück, the German finance minister. He isn't a conservative finance minister from Merkel's CDU, he is a Social Democrat member of the coalition government. Worth reading the full interview in Newsweek. Devestating.

Yesterday, Brian Cowen resigned; today his government has imploded. The Green Party, which was bolstering Cowen’s ruling coalition (if such a phrase is applicable in this instance), have left the government. The Fianna Fail-led coalition is now two votes short of a majority, and therefore the finance bill may not pass in its current form. If that is so, Ireland may return to the pr...

THE Liberal Democrats would refuse to enter a coalition government with Labour or the Tories in the event of a hung parliament.

After Iceland, now Latvia. The Finacial crisis has taken down a second government, this time the ruling four party coalition in Latvia. economy is set to drop 12 percent this year, the Finance Ministry has forecast. Yesterday Vaclav Klaus was barraked by the Parliament, for amongst other things pointing out how the economy was not working as planned, indeed was not working because it was increasin...

David Cameron has admitted that a minority government would have "limped through Parliament" and stressed he was proud of what the coalition had achieved.

The great debate about a hung parliament and coalition government after the next election continues to entertain Westminster insiders. The latest to launch into print on this charming parlour game is the Fabian Society's Sunder Katwala, in the New Statesman. He argues that it is time for Labour and the Lib Dems to acknowledge their position as progressive parties, and form a pre-emptive coalition ...

Scottish Government spending plans will be scrutinised when the Scottish Parliament’s Finance Committee visits the County Buildings in Ayr on Monday 10 November.