Cameron and Clegg's Biggest Challenge

There's much talk of the "instability" in the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. But early signs suggest that the two parties share a similar sense of urgency about Britain's horrific budget deficit.

Three messages - and one query - in today's Conservative-Liberal deal in the UK:

1) Greece has saved the pound. The Liberals have historically been Britain's most Euro-enthusiastic party. They formerly favored UK entry into the Euro. The new Conservative-Liberal compact however precludes any alteration of the UK-EU relationship over the next five years. That was apparently an easy Liberal "yes." Cutting the deficit would be hard enough. Cutting the deficit under a fixed currency is nightmarishly more difficult. Britain has dodged a bullet - and the Liberals have learned a lesson. The pound stays.

2) In one day, David Cameron has accepted a bigger constitutional change than Labour achieved in 13 years. To hold the Libs to a 5-year deal, Cameron has accepted the principle of fixed elections, the next to be May 10, 2015. That may sound natural to American ears, but of all the many powers in the arsenal of a British prime minister, few are (were) more formidable than the power to call an election when he wills. Imagine if Jimmy Carter could have called an election in the summer of 1979 rather than wait till November 1980: He'd have won for sure. Imagine if George H.W. Bush could have legally delayed his re-election until November 1993. Cameron has just surrendered that power. (Although he thoughtfully bought himself a FIVE-year term, not the four years that are conventional in Canada and Australia.)

3) The most urgently relevant Conservative-Liberal difference is in immigration. On this issue, it looks as if the Conservatives at least intend to prevail: while the Liberals got an amazing 5 cabinet slots, they did not get Home Office, the body that enforces immigration law. That decision opens the way to more effective enforcement in future, especially against migrants who abuse the asylum laws.

Now the query: There's much talk of the "instability" of this new government. I wonder. The closest area of coalition cooperation looks to be Britain's debt emergency. The Liberals are under-represented in defense/national security portfolios - and over-represented in economics and finance. That seems to imply that the Liberals and Conservatives share a similar sense of urgency about Britain's horrific budget deficit. Frankly, it would be interesting to know how much even the new leadership of the Labour party disagrees. Britain is not Greece, debt repudiation is not an acceptable option. I'm wondering if the real model for Britain's next decade is not Canada's 1990s, also a time of governments that were weak on paper, but that were able to act strongly, because their opponents tacitly approved and accepted their most important decisions.