What to make of the results?

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Published: 13 May, 2010

PHILIPPE SANDS
THERE was real unhappiness about the Lib Dem and Tory coalition in Camden.
I heard a lot about the selling-off of council homes. It was a rejection of policies like that. Labour did very well, and they worked very hard at getting their vote out in parts of the constituency that were very strongly in favour of Labour. And when push came to shove, people got into the voting booth and thought: this looks tough, better go for the devil we know and trust. They did better locally than nationally – it seems the national vote was more of a referendum on Gordon Brown rather than Labour as a whole.
One of the issues that will trouble the new central government is to what extent they want to decentralise power. Lib Dems have always been strongly in favour of that, and on schemes such as setting a local income tax for example.
This has not been addressed in the draft of the agreement between the two parties when I looked at it today (Wednesday). Will they allow local authorities to raise their own funds? It is not clear. We will hold the Lib-Dems to account and hold them to acting on their ideas concerning increasing local democracy.
There is much in the draft agreement between the Lib Dem and Tories that looks positive – civil liberties, the environment and higher education. Something big has changed – Clegg will be working out of Downing Street. Perhaps this is an end to tribal politics.
• Philippe Sands, QC, is a barrister and professor of international law at UCL