UK coalition unveils policy plans
The Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government on Thursday revealed the complete details of their policy agreement.
PM David Cameron and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg described the policy agreement as an “historic document” in the joint foreword. “As our parties have worked together it has become increasingly clear to us that, though there are differences, there is also common ground. We share a conviction that the days of big government are over; that centralisation and top-down control have proved a failure,” they wrote.
“In every part of this agreement we have gone further than simply adopting those policies where we previously overlapped. We have found that a combination of our parties’ best ideas and attitudes has produced a programme for government that is more radical and comprehensive than our individual manifestos,” they added. “For example, when you take Conservative plans to strengthen families and encourage social responsibility and add them to the Liberal Democrat passion for protecting our civil liberties and stopping the relentless incursion of the state into the lives of individuals, you create a big society matched by big citizens,” they wrote. The coalition government has adopted the Tory agenda on relationship with India and China. “We will work to establish a new ‘special relationship’ with India and seek closer engagement with China, while standing firm on human rights in all our bilateral relationships,” the coalition policy agreement said. Again adopting the Tory policy, the policy agreement supported “reform of the United Nations Security Council, including permanent seats for Japan, India, Germany, Brazil and African representation.”
The Tory-LibDem coalition again reiterated its decision to cap immigration of non-EU citizens. “We will introduce an annual limit on the number of non-EU economic migrants admitted into the UK to live and work. We will consider jointly the mechanism for implementing the limit,” the agreement said.
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Indian-origin MP Vara appointed as minister
AGE CORRESPONDENT
LONDON
May 20: Indian-origin solicitor Sailesh Vara was on Wednesday appointed as an assistant government whip in the ministry of Prime Minister David Cameron. He is the minister of Indian-origin in the coalition government. His job involves enforcing party discipline amongst the Conservative MPs in Parliament. Mr Vara, the lone Asian Tory MP in last Parliament, retained his Cambridgeshire North West seat with a majority of 16,677 votes. Mr Vara has been a member of the Commons since May 2005.
He was the first Asian to be the shadow deputy leader of the Conservative Party in the House of Commons. Married with two children, Mr Vara’s parents had moved to Britain from Uganda in the late 1960s.
Forty-nine-year-old former solicitor was born in Uganda and moved to Britain with his Gujarati-origin parents in 1964.
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