Clegg insisted he will "see this coalition through" despite party president Tim Farron's highly publicised prediction that the coalition will end in divorce. But the government's response to the riots brought to the fore some of the tensions running between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems; those looking for cracks in the coalition did not have far to search.
In her keynote speech, children's minister Sarah Teather launched a thinly veiled attack on some of the tactics and announcements following the rioting in England.
"In responding to what we saw on our television screens, we saw differences between the political parties," she said. "Differences in their values and what they believed for the future of our country. Our country – is it one where individual rights are cherished and protected or where the response to threat is to clamp down harder? Is it one where your birth is allowed to equal your fate or where we use the nation's resources to fight against it?"
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