BARRY Sheerman’s verdict on the first year of the coalition Government is blunt.

“It’s been a disaster all-round,” said the Huddersfield MP yesterday.

“It’s been a depressing year for those of us who thought there might be some innovation and new ideas.

“I don’t see any kind of new politics.”

The Labour man believes the coalition’s key mistake has been cutting public spending too quickly.

He said: “The economy is flat-lining. We need to get people producing more and buying more by slowing down the cuts.”

Mr Sheerman criticised the Lib Dems for agreeing to go into coalition with the Conservatives 12 months ago.

“The Lib Dems seem to have jettisoned all they believe in order to prop up a profoundly Conservative government,” he said.

“I think the Lib Dems love power so much that they will cling on to it for as long as possible – they like the chauffeur-driven cars.

“They have not achieved the Alternative Vote and they have a higher education policy which will haunt them at the next election.”

However, Mr Sheerman also criticised his own party’s performance yesterday.

“We’ve spent the last year licking our wounds,” he said.

“We did alright in last week’s elections but the results in Scotland were disastrous.

“We need to develop a new centre-left vision for the 21st Century.”

Meanwhile, Colne Valley MP Jason McCartney is in buoyant mood as the coalition enters its second year.

The Conservative said yesterday: “The last year has flown by and everyone is cracking on with things down in Westminster.”

Mr McCartney added that the coalition Government’s key achievement in its first year had been improving the country’s finances.

“We’ve stabilised the economy,” he said.

“We were in a perilous position but there are now encouraging signs that jobs are being created – but there’s still a lot to do.”

Mr McCartney added: “We’ve also ditched ID cards and taken 10 million people out of income tax. These are positive steps forward.”

Mr McCartney won the Colne Valley seat at last year’s general election after an intense fight with the Lib Dems, who came second.

But the Conservative said yesterday that his relations with local Lib Dems – including Colne Valley councillor David Ridgway – had improved since then.

Mr McCartney said: “I work closely with David on fire authority issues and I even gave him a hug at the Kirklees count on Friday.

“When Manchester United play Liverpool, the players get stuck in.

“But when it comes to an England game, you have Steven Gerrard passing to Wayne Rooney to score and everyone hugs each other afterwards.”

University of Huddersfield politics lecturer Dr Pete Woodcock believes the coalition had done “remarkably well” in its first year.

He said yesterday: “The pace of reform has been quicker than the first year of Blair or Thatcher. The Government has attempted massive change to the economy, the NHS and education.”

But Dr Woodcock added that the Conservatives were the dominant partner.

He said: “I think you’ve got to see it as a Tory-led Government. I can’t really see one thing that the Lib Dems have got out of this.”

And Dr Woodcock believes Nick Clegg’s time as party leader could be coming to an end.

He said: “Clegg’s real challenge is from within. The Lib Dems have been brutal in the past when they got rid of Charles Kennedy and Menzies Campbell.

“The real question is whether there’s a candidate who could take over.”

See what a beaten Lib Dem councillor who lost his seat thinks about the coalition on the next page

A BEATEN Lib Dem believes the coalition government cost him his seat on Kirklees Council.

But Roger Battye also thinks the one-year-old pact between his party and the Conservatives was the only viable option.

Mr Battye, who was first elected to Kirklees in 2003, lost his seat to Labour’s Cliff Preest by more than 1,000 votes last Thursday.

The Lib Dem stalwart is in no doubt about who was responsible for his defeat.

“The coalition Government is 100% to blame for me losing his seat,” he said yesterday.

“If the campaign had been based on local delivery then Labour wouldn’t have had a chance because they’ve done nothing in the area.

“But no-one treated it as a local campaign.

“I feel bitter that the electorate hasn’t judged me on what I’ve done but rather on what Nick Clegg has done.

“But that’s my fault for not getting my point over strongly enough to make them change their minds.”

Mr Battye, 62, said many Dalton residents were angry with the coalition Government.

“A lot of the younger ones said we had broken promises over tuition fees and they felt betrayed,” he said.

But Mr Battye, who joined the Liberals aged 13 in 1962, added that his party was right to do a deal with the Conservatives.

“I don’t think we had a choice about going into coalition because the financial situation was so serious,” he said.

However, the Dalton man added that Mr Clegg was wrong to appear so friendly with Mr Cameron in the early days of the new Government.

“The bonhomie at that first press conference in the garden of Number 10 was a bad start,” he said.

“The body language was not sensible. We should have stuck to a more businesslike approach.”

Mr Battye added that he believes the coalition will survive until the scheduled end of this Parliament in 2015.

“It will last, I don’t think we have any choice but to make it last,” he said.

And the defeated councillor is already looking ahead to next year’s Kirklees election, when party colleague Clr Rochelle Parchment will try to hold her seat in Dalton.

“We’ve had our kicking, but the question now is what happens after our kicking, whether we can persuade people to support us again,” he said.

Mr Battye was one of five Lib Dem councillors who lost their seats in last week’s Kirklees election.

Tony Woodhead was beaten by the Conservatives in Lindley while David Woodhead was unseated by an independent candidate in Holme Valley North.

Robert Iredale in Golcar and Naz Hussain in Dewsbury West both lost to Labour candidates.

And in Colne Valley the party lost the seat vacated by retiring Lib Dem Margaret Fearnley to the Tories.