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May 23, 2025 43 mins

With this month marking 15 years since the signing of the historic Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition agreement, and given the fractured five-party politics of 2025, what can be learned from five chaotic days in 2010, that led to five years of surprisingly stable government?


To discuss how it all came together, and what stopped it from falling apart, host Alain Tolhurst is joined by one of the people who helped negotiate the historic deal between the Tories and the Lib Dems, along with two members of the House of Lords, who in their past lives were at the heart of that 2010-2015 government, as well as a professor who quite literally wrote the book on the coalition.


David Laws was the Lib Dem MP for Yeovil from 2001 to 2015, and was part of his party’s team that thrashed out an agreement after the general election gave no party a majority to govern, and Baroness Kate Fall, who began working for David Cameron after he became leader, worked as deputy chief of staff inside Number 10 when he entered Downing Street.


Lord Jonny Oates, a Lib Dem peer, was chief of staff for Nick Clegg during his time as deputy Prime Minister, and finally Robert Hazell, Professor of Government and the Constitution at University College London, and the co-author of the book The Politics of Coalition, joins the panel too.



Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton and edited by Ewan Cameron for Podot

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