DAVID Cameron and his deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg have held their first press conference in the garden of Downing Street.

Looking extremely comfortable and joking with each other like old friends, Mr Clegg and Mr Cameron outlined their plans for their government.

Mr Cameron said no government in modern times had ever been left with "such a terrible economic inheritance".

Asked about how the two parties had gone from rivals to colleagues, Mr Cameron said: "We did both have a choice. We could have gone for a minority government backed up by the Lib Dems.

"But we sat down and looked at it and both thought this is so uninspiring, it's not actually going to do what we came into government to achieve. We want to give the country good government."

Little was said about the policies or priorities of the government although we did learn that Mr Clegg will stand in for David Cameron at Prime Minister's Questions when required.

The new Cabinet in full

• Chancellor: George Osborne

• Foreign Secretary: William Hague

• Defence: Liam Fox

• Health: Andrew Lansley

• Scottish Secretary: Danny Alexander,

• Work and Pensions: Iain Duncan Smith

• Energy and Climate Change: Chris Huhne,

• Business and Banks: Vince Cable

• Treasury Secretary: David Laws

• Education: Michael Gove

• Justice: Ken Clarke

• Home Secretary and Minster for Women and Equality: Theresa May

Under the coalition agreement there will be moves to a £10,000 tax threshold by May next year and a referendum on the alternative vote system.

Both Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg were positive about their "historic" new form of politics, with Mr Clegg saying it was a government that would last because it was united.

But South Dorset MP Richard Drax appears to have already broken ranks, telling BBC South Today that he thought the coalition was a short term solution.

"If we hadn't had it," he said, "we could have had a minority government and then an election in six months which we would have won with a stonking majority."