Coalition mid term report; decent outcome, poor process

As I have said before, I think the PM and DPM are doing a decent job in extraordinarily difficult circumstances. Not everything they had done has been good but there's far more good than bad. I would have preferred a Conservative majority government- obviously- but I still believe it was right to form the coalition and that it remains in the national interest for it to continue until 2015.

Those fellow Tories who complain about the coalition do need to remind themselves from time to time the public did not give us a majority. In those circumstances this was the best government possible for the country.

On the issue of handling of his week's mid term report. Verdict: must do better.

The press conference was fine- cheesy- but fine. The initial document was fine and a good bit of openness about progress so far and areas where more needs to be done. Less fine was the handling of the publication of the annex to the report. By moving its publication date and appearing unwilling to share it at the same time as the report and press conference made it look like there was something to hide or there was a row about its contents.

A classic process story followed which the media loves and distracts from the government's message. As we have seen before with communication from this government; good intentions but poor execution. It is tough to sell good news in such difficult times but not this tough!