Highlights from the Cameron/Clegg press conference

Tim Montgomerie selects highlights, not verbatim.

Snow: Cameron confirms that the Government has offered the military to help BAA get Heathrow going again.

Catchphrase of the presser: He then turns to the meat of the year and describes the Coalition's first seven months as "a rescue mission".

Emphasis on growth: The Coalition is more than a deficit reduction exercise, says the Prime Minister. It is also "urgently" pursuing opportunities for growth and will continue to do so in the new year.

Cablegate: Clegg begins with joke: I've haven't seen as many journalists in one room since my constituency surgery. Boom, Boom!

Helping the poor: The Deputy PM insists that social mobility and fairness are at the heart of the Coalition and mentions the £2.5bn pupil premium, IDS' overhaul of the welfare system and taking nearly one million people out of the income tax system altogether.

Hung parliaments can work: The Coalition has proven that hung parliaments need not be a disaster, Clegg says. The accusation hasn't been that the government is doing too little but that it's doing too much.

Cablegate: Vince is right to be embarrassed about his remarks, says Clegg but says he is an "outstanding" Secretary of State. The PM says he was "very apologetic" at Cabinet but he is good to work with.

Winter Fuel Payments: Despite what Vince said, they are here to say, says Cameron.

George Osborne's pantomime dame jibe at Chris Bryant (background): Adam Boulton asked if it was homophobic. The PM said he hadn't watched the exchange.

Ken Clarke: Cameron notes that Ken Clarke says Coalition has released his inner liberal. I have to keep popping it back in. No, no, no, jokes Clegg.

Next year: Asked by The Sun if the Coalition has done enough to prepared people for difficult times to come Mr Cameron says that he believes the people know times will be tough. He says that the Coalition plans to fulfil a five year programme and it is not complacent about what lies ahead.

Putting cuts in perspective: The Coalition says Clegg is not doing anything "outrageous" in terms of the size of government. The state will still be employing 200,000 people more than were employed when Labour came to power. It will also be 5% bigger overall. At the end of this process it will be as big as 2006.

Old and Sad by-election: The PM confirms he will be campaigning in the Oldham East and Saddleworth by-election. The parties will continue to campaign against each other but perhaps a little bit more politely. He confirms that they will fight on a shared record but as separate parties but only uses the word "expects". An alliance isn't ruled out. Clegg says that a Coalition does not equal a merger. The parties will stay distinct.

"Maoism": Dismissing the idea that the Coalition is "Maoist" the PM says the two parties are nonetheless encouraging each other to be more radical. On education, for example, Cameron says the Tory free schools idea plus the Lib Dem pupil premium has doubled the radicalism. [Comment: Why do we keep conceding the PP as a Lib Dem idea? - it was also in the Tory manifesto].

Prisons: Prisons don't work if they become colleges of crime, says Clegg, and that's why I support Ken Clarke's policy.

NHS reforms: There is no comfortable, do-nothing option on healthcare because of health inflation, says Cameron. We either have to put unaffordable investment in the NHS or we need to get better value for money from existing spending. Andrew Lansley, the PM continues, has provided good answers to forensic questioning from Oliver Letwin, Nick Clegg and myself. GP fundholding was a successful model and is at the heart of the reform programme.