Week in Westminster - 16/10/2010

Peter Oborne of The Telegraph looks behind the scenes at Westminster. Parliament reconvened this week for the first time after the party conference season. The prevailing mood was one of second-guessing the effect of spending cuts and preparing the ground for the arguments over fairness which will no doubt abound next week. Labour peer Lord McFall, formerly chair of the Treasury Select Committee in the House of Commons, judges how best his party should respond to government policy with Michael Fallon, deputy chairman of the Conservative party. On Tuesday Vince Cable announced the recommendations of the Browne review on higher education to cries of treachery from the opposition benches and a certain amount of discomfort amongst his fellow Liberal Democrats. Two new MPs, Tessa Munt Liberal Democrat and Luciana Berger, Labour, discuss the proposal to increase university fees. A new House of Commons Select Committee on Political and Constitutional Reform met this week for the first time to inquire into how coalitions work. David Laws, one of the principal Liberal Democrat architects of the current coalition agreement, was the first to give evidence. He spoke to Week In Westminster of the first days after the May general election. On the international stage this week some of the new emerging nations were admitted to the UN security council. Lord Hannay, a former ambassador to the UN, and Sir Menzies Campbell, a former Liberal Democrat spokesman on foreign affairs, discuss the implications of this move. Editor: Marie Jessel