pending street yesterday evening I said that Nick and I wanted to put aside party differences and work together in the national interest since I set out that aim both our parties have given the full backing to our coalition agreement a Liberal Democrat conservative government that we have negotiated this is the first coalition government in Britain for 65 years it will be an administration unit United behind three key principles freedom fairness and responsibility and it will be an administration united behind one key purpose and that is to give our country the strong and stable and determined
leadership that we need for the long term in the days and weeks ahead we will together be setting out in greater detail the aims and the values of our partnership and the full policy programme of our coalition government today we want to say just a few words about how we plan to work together and the significance of what we've achieved in coming to this agreement this morning as part of the process of establishing the new government I've been working to appoint the Cabinet later today I will be chairing the first meeting of our National Security
Council and Nick Clegg will be at my side there are five Liberal Democrat secretaries of state in cabinet working hand-in-hand with conservative colleagues to address the big challenges that Britain faces and starting with Nick Clegg as Deputy Prime Minister Liberal Democrats will be represented at every level of government I think this is a sign of the strength and depth of this coalition and our sincere determination to work together constructively to make this coalition work in our national interest we have a shared agenda and a shared resolve to tackle the challenges our country faces to safeguard
our national security and support our troops abroad to tackle the debt crisis to repair our broken political system and to build a stronger society we understand that we're not going to beat these problems overnight and in particular no government in modern times has ever been left with such a terrible economic inheritance today's unemployment figures are another sign of the human cost of the economic mistakes of the past decade so we know there will be difficult decisions ahead but working together I know we can take the country through those difficult times to the better times that
I believe lie ahead but today we're not just announcing a new government and new ministers we are announcing a new politics a new politics where the national interest is more important than the party interest where cooperation wins out over confrontation where compromise where give-and-take where reasonable civilized grown-up behavior is not a sign of weakness but a sign of strength one of the biggest problems of the last few years has been a chronic short-termism in government with this coalition government and this coalition agreement we have for five years we can act for the long term and
make the big decisions about our country's future and that is the true significance of this coalition it can be a historic and seismic shift in our political landscape it can demonstrate in government a new progressive partnership believing in enterprise markets and fiscal responsibility committed to civil liberties and curbing the power of the state passionate about building a green economy and determined to build the big society where families and communities are supported and strengthened and eager to make sure that the big society is matched by big citizens where power is taken from the politicians and put
in the hands of people as we embark on a recasting of our political system our liberal conservative government will take Britain in a historic new direction a direction of hope and unity conviction and common purpose I'm delighted to be standing here with the new Deputy Prime Minister the two of us together leading this historic Liberal Democrat conservative administration and I would like now to invite him to speak to us and what I think is a remarkable and very welcome day Nick thank you David we we've just been through an election campaign and now we have
a coalition until today we were rivals and now we're colleagues and that says a lot about the scale of the new politics which is now beginning to unfold this is a new government and it's a new kind of government a radical reforming government where it needs to be and a source of reassurance and stability at a time of great uncertainty in our country - David has spoken about many of the challenges we all face economy is still struggling to get to its feet the public finance is in a mess the our troops engaged in a
difficult and lasting conflict that requires resolution our society still scarred by too much unfairness and inequality our politics not yet recovered from the hammer blows of recent months and at a time of such enormous difficulties our country needed a strong and stable government it needed an ambitious gun determined to work relentlessly for a better future and that is what we have come together in this coalition to provide this is a government that will last not because of a list of policies important though they are not because it will be easy there will be bumps and
scrapes along the way we are different parties and we have different ideas this is a government that will last despite those differences because we are united by a common purpose for the job we want to do together in the next five years our ambition is simple and yet profound our ambition is to put real power and opportunity into the hands of people families and communities to change their lives and our country for the better for me that's what liberalism is all about ensuring that everybody has a chance no matter who they are where they're from
to be the person they want to be to live the life they want to live you can call it fairness you can call it responsibility even call it liberalism whatever words you use the change it will make to your life is the same you will have the opportunities you crave fairer taxes better schools a fair green economy with growth that lasts clean open plural politics that I hope once again you can put your faith in to deliver the help and the change you need I want this to be a bold reforming government that puts fairness
back into Britain a government that restores our faith in what a healthy strong society can achieve a government that takes power away from politicians as David said and gives it back to you a government which hands back your liberties and your privacy building a nation where parents pupils and patients can shape our schools and hospitals where fine words on the environment are finally translated into real action where social mobility becomes a reality for all where the great British Traditions of tolerance and fairness are restored and I came into politics to change politics and to change
Britain for good together that job starts today thank you thank you very much and we may not be able to take as many questions as at a normal press conference because we're still actually appointing members of the government but we will do our best perhaps if we could start with Gary Gibbon and for news we will thought this coalition was a sort of accidental results of the election result on Friday but you may seem to be making it sound like it's a mission that it's something that could carry on it's a new dynamic that lasts
beyond this this arrangement do you think coalition's are a good thing a bad thing a necessary evil leap in the dark let's start before Nick I mean you talked about this arrangement this is a five-year arrangement what we find I think so exciting that there's the prospect of having a five-year government a five-year partment taking the difficult decisions that need to be taken in the long term interest of the country I think that is absolutely a key the other point I make is this we did both have a choice we we looked at the option
and we talked about it extensively about you know the minority government backed with the competence and supply agreement and we had a meeting about it over the last couple of days we just sort of looked at it and thought this is so uninspiring we can do it it might last for a month or six months or maybe a year or perhaps a bit longer but it's not actually going to do what we came into politics to achieve we want to give the country good government you want to sort out the problems of the debt and
the deficit and the promise of public services this would have done anything it might have put me in here in there it wouldn't actually mean anything and we both looked at each other and said this is really I'm inspiring that's aim for something bigger and better so we can actually change the face of politics and get something done that is really worth it well we all that is actually right but of people last Thursday in the ballot box told us politicians they didn't think any party deserved in that right majority yet at the same time
it's obvious that we need stability so the only way you create stability is by creating a government a coalition government which lasts and no government lasts whether it's a coalition or frightening even if it's one party government unless it has a common purpose and what I think David and I both have tried to set out today is that yes of course we've been working over the last several days on specific policies and how we're going to advance them and how of course we can have to make compromises we both made compromises but that a government
a good government that lasts is also one that is underpinned by a common purpose and that you know we might use different words but is based on the simple idea of course restoring stability to our economy but also giving power back to people getting people more of opportunity in their everyday lives um it's a BBC News thank you for a minute sir um on the morning hour
