Mid-Term Review: not much to show for it in the end

Just as I predicted, the Mid-Term Review is petering out into a Q&A session as the Liberal Democrat conference in Brighton.

As the report from the party’s Federal Policy Committee explains, glossing over a little how the plans have changed from the original ambitions:

The Coalition Government has stated its intention to have a Mid Term Review of its programme, which will be published in Autumn 2012. However, this will not be a general re-opening of the Coalition Programme for Government. Instead, it will essentially be a progress assessment exercise to identify which of the goals set out in the original Coalition Programme the Government will have met through policies already announced, where the gaps still lie and where it needs to do more to deliver.

The process is about looking to see what should be a priority during the rest of the Parliament; not about starting over again from scratch.

Given the nature of this exercise which is not about developing new policies, the FPC and FCC have decided that it is not suitable for a formal debate at conference. Instead, Danny Alexander MP will be leading a Q&A session at the Brighton Conference to present the key issues for the Government review and to give conference representatives an opportunity to raise questions and concerns.