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Home > All site sections > HR blogs and comment > HR blogs > Specialists' blog

Happily ever after for David Cameron and Nick Clegg?

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John Philpott

5 May 2011 | 12:47

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Articles more than one month old can be viewed only by CIPD members or PM Subscribers.

It was a day that will live long in the collective memory of our nation. With spring in the air, the clearly happy smiling couple were cheered to the rafters by a throng of enthusiastic well wishers gathered in Parliament square and along Whitehall. It seems like only a week ago. Yet remarkably its already a year since David Cameron and Nick Clegg stood in the rose garden at 10 Downing Street to seal their historic political partnership.

As with any relationship there have been a few early tiffs, with the first anniversary especially tetchy. Dave promised Nick a referendum on changing the voting system but told everyone else to stick with the tried and tested, which upset Nick’s mates no end. But while Nick’s trust in Dave’s fidelity is a tad less strong than it once was, he’s prepared to forgive and forget in order to put the national family finances in shape.

Unfortunately for Nick, however, the gloss of the 2010 photo shoot has worn off somewhat. Unlike Dave, who looks as smooth and chipper as ever, Nick appears to not only have lost some of his attractive lustre but also quite a large number of former supporters. And judging by the latest economic data, he’ll need more than a cosmetic makeover to win them back any time soon.

The economy, which was growing quite rapidly this time last year, is today no bigger than it was when Dave and Nick tied the knot. The unemployment rate is also the same, which is at least kind of good news, but since the jobless total lags behind changes in the rate of economic growth a flat–lining economy doesn’t bode well for the rest of 2011. Indeed, considering these data have been barely influenced by the tax hikes and cuts in public spending Dave and Nick have made since joining forces, things could yet turn out a lot worse still.

No wonder then that the CIPD’s last quarterly Employee Outlook survey, published on 5 May, makes such grim reading. Approaching 2 in 5 (37 per cent) of the 2000 UK employees surveyed by pollsters YouGov say that their standard of living has dropped in the past six months. This squares with official data showing a dip in real disposable household incomes as not just higher taxes but also rampant price inflation eats into pay packets, which for most people are little if any bigger than they were before the recession.

Job satisfaction meanwhile is down to its lowest level since the CIPD started to take the temperature of feeling across UK workplaces in spring 2009. Especially worrying for bosses trying to steer staff through tough times, employee morale has plummeted to a record low for the survey, as has trust in senior leaders.

Dave and Nick can of course argue that all this was inevitable and they had no alternative but to come together to lead us all through unavoidable tough times. And equally true, no one knows what would have happened had the Prime Minister and his deputy not wooed each other after last year’s General Election stalemate. Either way, however, with economic and social tension almost certain to intensify in the coming months the likelihood is that this political marriage has yet to encounter its most rocky patch. Dave and Nick might still live happily ever after, but don’t count on it.