Chin up.

If you had said to me a year ago that Blackpool would not only be in the premiership but also be doing quite well, I would have assumed you were either on narcotics or "twisting my melon". Equally if you had said to me a year ago that David Cameron would be prime minister with Nick Clegg as his deputy I would have slapped you in the face and thrown you out of my basement. In fact, it does not seem so long ago when myself and my Lib Dem followers would engage in heated political discourse, usually reducible to fundamental disagreements on European integration and childish name calling. Those days are gone. Well, at least for the time being...

One positive aspect of this coalition has been finding common ground with those I personally considered to be our opponents. What is interesting is how much common ground can be found with many Liberal Democrats, especially on the fundamental questions of taxation and personal liberties. The key areas where we differ (most notably European Federalism and Trident) seem to have been worked around...at least..for the time being (The former is becoming less of an issue every day as the the Euro becomes more unsustainable). So, despite my apparent misgivings (I gave it six months) the coalition is in full swing and it seems so far..so...ok. Yes, there have been some unfortunate incidents. The 0.5% contraction in the final quarter's economic figures did not help. Osbourne blaming it on the snow made it worse. What we have to remember is that it was never going to be easy. Brown had thirteen years to increase the size of the state and increase public spending far beyond what we as a country could afford. The cuts which Osbourne proposes are, by comparison, tiny. This will not help the people who will inevitably lose their jobs. What will be of some comfort are the two little spoken about tax reductions which were proposed in the last budget and will be expanded upon at the next. The first is the lowering of corporation tax to allow the private sector to once again flourish in the UK. It is predicted that this will lead to the creation of 1.5 million new jobs. The second will be the increase in the tax free allowance for working people. This will have a huge impact on low and middle income families and will live many less well off people out of tax completely.

There are however key areas where I believe the coalition could improve. The maintaining of the 50% upper tax rate for high earners when it is already clear it will raise no revenue is a worry. The "ring fencing" of certain public spending areas such as the International Development Budget when some the money could be better spent elsewhere is laughable. Listening to Vince Cable (the business secretary) bemoan the perils of Capitalism..... Despite all this, for better or for worse, the coalition has fared better over the past months than I or any others expected it to. I also expect the protests and strikes to get a lot worse over the next few months.

Just remember, chin up. Could be a lot worse. Brown could still be the PM....or the awful cat lady...