Thaindian News

London, May 12 (DPA) Britain’s new Conservative-Liberal Democrat leadership Wednesday promised a new era of consensus government that would usher in bold reform and mark a “seismic shift” in the political landscape.
In their first joint news conference, held in the rose garden of Downing Street, Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, and his deputy, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, vowed to place the national interest above party politics.

The coalition, the first in Britain since the end of World War II, would survive the full five-year term, they vowed.

“This will succeed through its success,” said Cameron.

“Until today we were rivals and now we are colleagues and that says a lot about the new politics,” added Clegg.

The two men, both 43, struck a deal on a full coalition government after five days of tense negotiations late Tuesday, following last week’s general election.

Former prime minister Gordon Brown, who had been in the job for just under three years, stepped down after his rival attempts to secure a deal with the Liberals failed.

The Liberal Democrats, sharing power in Britain for the first time in 70 years, will have five ministers in the new cabinet, which include Clegg’s post of deputy prime minister.

The Conservatives’ William Hague was appointed Foreign Secretary Wednesday. The important Treasury portfolio will go to George Osborne, a close Cameron ally. Conservative Liam Fox will be the new defence secretary.

Vince Cable, the Liberals’ leading economics experts, was named business secretary in the new cabinet and will be in charge of banking reform.

As a top priority, the two sides agreed to “accelerate the reduction” of Britain’s record budget deficit of 163 billion pounds ($242 billion) through a massive programme of public spending cuts.

Hague said Wednesday that “getting a grip” on military operations in Afghanistan was among his top priorities.

A newly-convened National Security Council would make sure that foreign and defence policy were “properly integrated at the highest levels of government.”

The new British government would seek what Hague described as a “solid but not slavish relationship” with the US, while the so-called special relationship remained of “huge importance.”

US President Barack Obama was the first foreign leader to congratulate Cameron late Tuesday, followed by Germany Chancellor Angela Merkel and France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy.

In Moscow, a foreign ministry official said Russia hoped that the new British government would help to breathe new life into the fraught relations between the two countries.

Hague said the government would make “renewed efforts” to secure good relations with “countries that are where the economic action is in the world” - in South Asia, North America and Latin America.

Hague, a veteran sceptic of the European Union, said he was confident that the two coalition parties would be able to reconcile their contrasting approaches to European integration.

“All British governments sometimes face difficulties over European policy but given the discussions we have had … we certainly do not start off with it as a difficulty,” said Hague.

The government would pursue an “active and activist” policy towards Brussels.

In the agreement struck by the two sides, the Liberals gave up their commitment to the possible introduction of the euro in Britain and backed the Conservative policy of holding a referendums on any future “transfer of power” to the EU.