Britain's new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government offers the country the best opportunity of overcoming its economic challenges and tackling the Budget deficit. The government has a comfortable parliamentary majority which will ensure much needed political stability and the deal between the two parties is intended to last for a full Parliament.
Gordon Brown made a dignified resignation speech and Labour now needs to rejuvenate itself in opposition after 13 years in government.
The historic coalition agreement between the two parties has certainly ushered in a new style of collaborative politics in Britain. The Liberal Democrats have been given five Cabinet seats out of 23 and political reform is on the agenda of the new government, including a referendum on a new voting system.
Both David Cameron and Nick Clegg have taken a risk in agreeing to this coalition and both have had to make compromises. However, joining forces was the right thing to do and, hopefully, the coalition will remain intact as the government is forced to make difficult and unpopular choices.
The new government has agreed to cut the deficit mainly through reduced spending rather than increased taxes, to scrap Labour's proposed national insurance increase, to boost civil liberties, to bring about major educational reforms, to keep the Trident nuclear deterrent, to continue to make use of nuclear energy, to cap immigration from outside the European Union, to reform the banking system and to implement a series of measures to create a low carbon eco-friendly economy.
Significantly, the Liberal Democrats have agreed to Conservative plans for Budget cuts of £6 billion this year that will not affect frontline public services. Reducing the deficit is without doubt the biggest challenge facing the coalition and it remains to be seen whether the fragile recovery can withstand such cuts at this stage of the economic cycle.
The coalition government's declaration on the European Union is bound to be welcomed in European capitals. In an obvious concession to the Liberal Democrats, Prime Minister Cameron abandoned his party's pledge to repatriate powers ceded to Brussels on social legislation and agreed not to opt out of the EU's Charter of Fundamental Human Rights, which guarantees workers' rights.
The Liberal Democrats, on the other hand, made a modest concession on the single currency and future EU treaties. The coalition agreement stipulates that Britain "will not join or prepare to join the euro in this Parliament" and that any proposed future EU treaty that transferred power to Brussels would be subject to a referendum.
The participation of the Liberal Democrats in this coalition has in fact made the Conservatives step back from their traditional eurosceptic stance and this is a positive development. According to the coalition policy statement, the new British government will be "a positive participant in the European Union, playing a strong and positive role with our partners".
Britain's foreign policy is bound to remain largely intact, although the setting up of a national security council by the new government and an increased focus on Afghanistan seem welcome developments.
On the home front, one can only expect that the excellent relations between Malta and Britain will continue and that the two countries continue to co-operate closely on a European level.