Just by way of an update to the previous story, in which I speculated as to whether or not our three main political party leaders would ever get it together and do what is best for the country, from this afternoon’s press conference from 10 Downing Street, between the two party leaders, it would appear we do now have a fully fledged Liberal Conservative Coalition Government.

Nick Clegg and David Cameron, surrounded by twittering birds and sunshine in the rose garden of the new Prime Minister’s official residence, together announced “a new way of doing politics”. Although the exact details of what exactly that entails weren’t fully fleshed out, it does appear that the Conservatives are sincere about working closely with the Liberal Democrats, in a sweeping reform of the British political system not seen since the end of the Second World War.

If the centre left of the Conservative Party and the centre right of the Liberal Democrats can do what they’re proposing to do, which is bring an end to adversarial political games and instead serve the greater national interest; lower the deficit, fairer taxes and reform what the new LibDem Business Secretary Vince Cable called the corrupt casino banking system, even this cynical old blogger has to admit to being rather proud of British democracy at this particular moment in time.

It also seems likely we’ll see a scrapping of a whole slew of proposals which were deeply unpopular with the electorate put forward by the previous government, such as ID cards and Lord Mandelson’s last ditch attempt to criminalise internet file sharers which was literally pushed through Parliament in the dying minutes of the previous administration’s final session—much to the chagrin of back bench MPs, from all political parties, who didn’t have the chance to debate it.

When asked what they would do once the honeymoon period is over and their real ideological differences begin to show, Cameron and Clegg both agreed their performance would be judged by their ability to deliver what they’re promising, not whether or not they can out-perform each other.

In the words of the Beach Boys, wouldn’t it be nice?

EDIT: The full coalition agreement text is here (thanks to www.craigmurray.org.uk and @Glinner):

http://www.libdems.org.uk/latest_news_detail.aspx?title=Conservative_Liberal_Democrat_coalition_agreements&pPK=2697bcdc-7483-47a7-a517-7778979458ff