Coalition narrativewatch: alarm clock Britain

Here’s a new political narrative for 2011. In today’s Sun, the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, champions “alarm clock Britain”.

This is an “I’m on your side” political story.

It’s clear who the heroes are:

People, like Sun readers, who have to get up every morning and work hard to get on in life. People who want their kids to get ahead.

People who don't want to rely on state handouts. People who don't need politicians to tell them what to think or how to live their lives. People who are not poor but struggle to stay out of the red.

They are the backbone of Britain . . .

They drive our economy every single day of the year. Rain, wind or shine they are busy making this country tick.

But there are other heroes too: the coalition government, especially the Liberal Democrats, whose policies will give the hard-working people of virtue the break they deserve.

And the villains? The Labour Party who left us in a financial hole and remain in denial.

But I don’t see the dramatic, decisive event – the policy – that will produce a happy ending to the story.

Still, “Alarm Clock Britain” may help to define what “fairness”, the most empty of the Liberal Democrats' political slogans, really means.

Let’s see how this one goes.