Comments
Black hole plus DIY public services - Cameron's second manifesto
2010-04-13 10:37:52
So the Big Idea is that we can run our own lives. Apparently it is going to lead to a Big Society. And that is going to be really really nice. Not nasty like Thatcherism. Not nasty like the manifesto David Cameron wrote for Michael Howard in 2005.
Like a lot that David Cameron says, it sounds fine. But strip it away, and there are two very big holes.
One is the lack of a plan for securing the economic recovery. We should never tire of saying this - they got every major call on the recession wrong. Had we listened to them at the time of the crisis, it would have become a calamity. If we listen to them now, the recovery will be put at risk.
The second big hole is the one that will be created in the lives of people by the kind of DIY public services vision the Tory manifesto is putting forward.
There is no dispute about involving people in the running of public services. All three of the main parties are in favour of that. The greater involvement of the patient in the planning of healthcare, the parent in the running of schools, is one of the reasons schools and hospitals have improved under Labour. It is not just about the investment we put in and the Tories opposed. And yesterday Labour's manifesto had further proposals for taking on vested interests in the public services.
But the Tory plan for DIY public services will still have to rely on proper funding. And if the Tories are going to meet all their promises on cutting the deficit, cutting taxes for the very rich, and paying for their plan to recognise marriage in the tax system, then they are going to have to make some very deep cuts to get there.
The Big Society will always depend on a strong economy. Labour has shown it can manage the economy in the good times, and in the bad times that followed the economic crash.
Cameron is hoping that the anti-politics mood of the country will lead to people thinking anything which gets government out of their lives has to be a good thing. But where would Britain have been without a strong government when the economic crisis came? And where would we be now had we left it all to the markets as he and Mr Osborne wanted to do?
If you put together the economic black hole, with his sink-or-swim approach to public services, you have but the latest evidence that for all his talk, he has not changed his party from the one that stood on his first manifesto five years ago.
** Buy The Blair Years and raise cash to help stop the Tories http://www.alastaircampbell.org/bookshop.php.
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Berlin brothel leads the way to a greener worldPublish date: 2009-07-14 10:57:25
A time for GB to explain the whole picturePublish date: 2009-07-13 12:37:54
All hail Monty, Jimmy and Collie!Publish date: 2009-07-12 20:06:36
First triathlon of the summer for me, education award for FionaPublish date: 2009-07-12 09:43:06
Of Burnley's friendly and Obama's wandering eyePublish date: 2009-07-11 12:38:52
Two great early morning momentsPublish date: 2009-07-10 10:27:07
Cameron had better be sure he's rightPublish date: 2009-07-09 11:06:22
Guardian scoop has big questions for press, cops and CameronPublish date: 2009-07-08 20:40:54
Divisive legend: Lance ArmstrongPublish date: 2009-07-07 10:38:23
First hug a hoodie, now grab a gayPublish date: 2009-07-06 12:57:09
Mail on Scumday's wonderful account of Lansley's kipperdomPublish date: 2009-07-05 13:14:51
Ecclestone undermines his own success with alarming views on HitlerPublish date: 2009-07-04 14:04:04
When the conmen move more quickly than the councilPublish date: 2009-07-03 10:19:52
Andrew Lansley done up like a kipperPublish date: 2009-07-02 10:10:52
A day spent interviewing footballers, then being interviewed by a transvestite comedianPublish date: 2009-07-01 14:47:40
When the power of black eyes fadesPublish date: 2009-06-30 09:24:59
Farewell to Henry HodgePublish date: 2009-06-29 20:41:12
Honouring the power of sport to do goodPublish date: 2009-06-29 14:49:42
Andy Murray is a winner. Is that why some Brits don't like him?Publish date: 2009-06-28 09:19:20
New Parliament will look very different. The younger the betterPublish date: 2009-06-27 17:34:26
Two nice surprises, sad end to dayPublish date: 2009-06-26 09:16:33
Apology from the Spectator on Iraq boosts Henry Hodge fundPublish date: 2009-06-25 19:57:26
Thanks to Mr Harper on mental health, rebuttal of Mr Hague on IraqPublish date: 2009-06-24 23:47:54
Glad to find Eric Cantona in a quiet cinema ...Publish date: 2009-06-24 00:46:23
By Dave's friends shall we know him?Publish date: 2009-06-23 11:30:20
The Speaker has to balance tradition and change - but defend ParliamentPublish date: 2009-06-22 11:58:44
Less a blog than an apology for not having done onePublish date: 2009-06-21 20:07:43
The day Lions skipper Paul O'Connell took my trousers downPublish date: 2009-06-20 11:48:28
On the Iraq inquiry, Independent article wrongPublish date: 2009-06-19 20:28:24
Thank you to three readers, now please get involvedPublish date: 2009-06-19 09:13:35
A tribute to a lovely manPublish date: 2009-06-18 17:19:40
Bad times in Belfast, great day for Burnley, odd statement from Ed BallsPublish date: 2009-06-18 10:04:47
A plea for five-figure cyber-donationsPublish date: 2009-06-17 07:40:42
On two inquiriesPublish date: 2009-06-16 08:57:39
From India to Iran to Labour witPublish date: 2009-06-15 10:13:17
Memories of Princess DianaPublish date: 2009-06-14 09:54:55
A House Divided?Publish date: 2009-06-13 02:53:47
A humbling NHS experience, a media row and a good GB speechPublish date: 2009-06-12 10:48:46
Psychiatrists heading for relegation in 'disease prestige' league tablePublish date: 2009-06-11 10:25:35
The shrinks awaitPublish date: 2009-06-10 09:44:16
As Obama fights for healthcare, let's celebrate the record herePublish date: 2009-06-09 12:52:55
Anger at BNP seats must be turned into activismPublish date: 2009-06-08 14:11:10
Can today be as frenzied as Friday?Publish date: 2009-06-07 10:31:04
Take heart from a win in LambethPublish date: 2009-06-06 18:46:40
JP is right there was no proper campaign but Tories still weakPublish date: 2009-06-05 13:47:20
Do we care more about the NHS or moats?Publish date: 2009-06-04 00:21:23
Guardian of social justice or attention-seeker?Publish date: 2009-06-03 10:19:33
Who says Britain can't deliver the best?Publish date: 2009-06-02 08:08:38
Mainstream has a duty to vote against BNPPublish date: 2009-06-01 11:03:29
Let Diversity inspire a vote against the hate-filled BNPPublish date: 2009-05-31 12:24:20
White House whack at UK media well-timed but sure to be ignoredPublish date: 2009-05-30 13:41:00
Elvis has a plan to make MPs King againPublish date: 2009-05-29 12:09:44
At least there's a campaign on in ItalyPublish date: 2009-05-28 09:04:32
A blow to gay rights and a boost for Cameron's short-termismPublish date: 2009-05-27 11:27:41
It's my blog and I'll be a big kid if I want toPublish date: 2009-05-26 23:25:58
Highs feel better after so many lowsPublish date: 2009-05-26 10:13:12
Only one present countsPublish date: 2009-05-25 11:05:46
Contrast Cheney and BushPublish date: 2009-05-24 12:11:45
Sex (or at least the female form) obsessed BritainPublish date: 2009-05-23 20:49:57
Sport at both ends of the financial spectrumPublish date: 2009-05-23 09:57:23
Stronger together - whether Scotland or expensesPublish date: 2009-05-22 10:22:36
Back to Number 10, familiar faces, familiar argumentsPublish date: 2009-05-21 10:14:34
Speaking up for ParliamentPublish date: 2009-05-20 11:44:17
Peace in the Middle East - yes he canPublish date: 2009-05-19 09:37:35
Breaking news - one frenzy at a timePublish date: 2009-05-18 10:34:30
Getting a good look at Vince CablePublish date: 2009-05-17 09:36:55
How do you solve a problem like Silvio?Publish date: 2009-05-16 09:32:21
It was the internet wot won itPublish date: 2009-05-15 10:04:57
There now follows ... a good whack at CameronPublish date: 2009-05-14 17:21:28
They got their kit off - so you get your cash outPublish date: 2009-05-14 07:41:11
Expenses row must not obscure Tory intentions on minimum wagePublish date: 2009-05-13 16:12:08
We love you Burnley, we do ... what a nightPublish date: 2009-05-13 02:37:17
A tweet cannot express the wonders of TGVPublish date: 2009-05-12 08:48:31
It's Mind week - Get it off your Chest with me and Stephen FryPublish date: 2009-05-11 06:29:15
Hate the Mail, love ObamaPublish date: 2009-05-10 10:04:00
Burnley 1 Reading 0 - a biased reportPublish date: 2009-05-09 21:26:32
MPs expenses - time for party leaders to meet againPublish date: 2009-05-09 09:50:19
Should happiness replace prosperity as national goal?Publish date: 2009-05-08 08:43:23
Musings from a sleepless nightPublish date: 2009-05-07 07:33:49
Darren Fletcher - an injustice that has to be rightedPublish date: 2009-05-06 09:52:29
Maggie's legacy not as great as she thinksPublish date: 2009-05-05 08:33:02
Here's hoping Cardiff is metaphor for CameronPublish date: 2009-05-04 09:38:30
More Mr Benn and Co pleasePublish date: 2009-05-03 10:03:00
Going Fourth with JPPublish date: 2009-05-02 18:25:41
Journalism - print first, think laterPublish date: 2009-05-02 09:10:01
In praise of two poetsPublish date: 2009-05-01 10:26:36
JP hits the road againPublish date: 2009-04-29 18:52:11
My night with Eddie IzzardPublish date: 2009-04-29 10:53:25
Explaining the 50p top tax ratePublish date: 2009-04-28 09:22:53
George Best and Martin McGuinnessPublish date: 2009-04-27 09:02:35
Cameron confused over indepdendence and impartialityPublish date: 2009-04-26 12:20:56
Guide ro Marathon running part 2Publish date: 2009-04-25 11:01:34
Good signals on coal and the OlympicsPublish date: 2009-04-24 10:45:28
Tips for the London MarathonPublish date: 2009-04-23 17:29:27
Missed the Budget, saw why it matteredPublish date: 2009-04-22 23:09:31
Football good, politics bad. AllegedlyPublish date: 2009-04-22 00:00:24
The Great Wall gets greaterPublish date: 2009-04-21 09:55:22
Two sides to police storyPublish date: 2009-04-20 11:39:54
Budgets, Balls, billionaires and Susan BoylePublish date: 2009-04-19 12:31:45
Do muscles have memories?Publish date: 2009-04-18 09:44:44
Bring back standing at footballPublish date: 2009-04-17 14:50:22
When Facebook friends fall outPublish date: 2009-04-16 12:29:16
Guardian sightings and the email and bath plug agendaPublish date: 2009-04-15 11:32:16
The spin is all in the prismPublish date: 2009-04-14 09:22:41
A setback, not a crisisPublish date: 2009-04-13 12:55:19
The real lessons from Damian McBridePublish date: 2009-04-12 10:49:47
Will English always be the dominant language?Publish date: 2009-04-11 10:02:02
On the pipes and what makes a ScotPublish date: 2009-04-10 11:06:20
John Prescott lazy? NO WAYPublish date: 2009-04-09 09:11:31
David Frost is seventyPublish date: 2009-04-08 08:48:38
The Speaker, BBC2, tonight and tomorrow 8pmPublish date: 2009-04-07 14:25:31
Obama, colds and being woken by Korean missilesPublish date: 2009-04-06 11:59:24
When a call matters more than protocolPublish date: 2009-04-05 11:33:42
Green Cities Champions LeaguePublish date: 2009-04-04 10:19:53
Could Cameron have delivered the G20 deal?Publish date: 2009-04-03 10:11:59
Of Benn and BonoPublish date: 2009-04-02 08:21:16
Memo to Sarko - allez vite a LondresPublish date: 2009-04-01 08:46:17
Happy April Fool's DayPublish date: 2009-04-01 01:44:05
Eurostar, Le Monde and a thought for the G20 sherpasPublish date: 2009-03-31 09:17:22
Why Kevin Rudd made an impactPublish date: 2009-03-30 10:24:41
Pre-G20 hype matters less than post-G20 processPublish date: 2009-03-29 13:17:28
The Damned UnitedPublish date: 2009-03-28 10:37:04
A hobby horse, a plug and a bit of sportPublish date: 2009-03-27 10:22:23
Cloughie - he had a lot to be big-headed aboutPublish date: 2009-03-26 09:38:36
A sad sight of the old fearing the youngPublish date: 2009-03-25 17:03:07
Post-modern, post-structural, or bullshit?Publish date: 2009-03-25 08:18:02
Learning the right lessons from ObamaPublish date: 2009-03-24 08:53:15
Lazy Dave needs to keep an eye on lazy KenPublish date: 2009-03-23 11:16:14
Farewell favourite restaurant, hello hometownPublish date: 2009-03-22 08:18:09
Dave, Danny and have the Tories really changed?Publish date: 2009-03-21 08:55:13
Life beyond Dover ...Publish date: 2009-03-20 10:11:21
My friends in The New Statesman - Fergie, Fiona, Tony, Sarah, Kevin, 'Dacre,' and a great GB idea for the G20Publish date: 2009-03-18 10:38:22
Iraq, Iran, GB, Obama and diplomatic chessPublish date: 2009-03-17 10:07:13
The Age of StupidPublish date: 2009-03-16 08:27:13
Is all change good?Publish date: 2009-03-15 10:00:06
The pressure of being a post-modern sex godPublish date: 2009-03-14 10:00:55
Cameron still hasn't sealed the deal with businessPublish date: 2009-03-13 09:21:49
Stand up for social workersPublish date: 2009-03-12 08:31:17
Surely Malcolm Tucker could have told Armando Ianucci ... You can't spin a spinnerPublish date: 2009-03-11 10:58:25
Start of a new approach from Labour?Publish date: 2009-03-10 09:54:12
A peace process still strongPublish date: 2009-03-09 08:21:05
Day of destiny for the real footballer of the yearPublish date: 2009-03-08 09:21:06
Private advice to Peggy Mitchell - the leaked note in fullPublish date: 2009-03-07 08:17:21
Boris, the Tories and the tummy-tickling poodle pressPublish date: 2009-03-06 09:49:37
A day in the life of the self-obsessed TV reporterPublish date: 2009-03-05 07:55:47
GB - good speech, well deliveredPublish date: 2009-03-04 19:31:05
Notes on the environment, a role in EastEndersPublish date: 2009-03-04 10:58:56
She may be my 'wife' but it is time to rebut!Publish date: 2009-03-03 10:52:59
Some speeches matter more than othersPublish date: 2009-03-02 12:04:45
Mental health and the Carling Cup FinalPublish date: 2009-03-01 09:08:17
Inside the chocolate factoryPublish date: 2009-02-28 10:23:59
GB on the G20, JP on Jeremy KylePublish date: 2009-02-27 09:14:36
Charity and the credit crunch, please give generously!Publish date: 2009-02-26 08:55:12
Why oh why are the Tories not home and dry?Publish date: 2009-02-24 09:44:59
Me, Dermot and ten top songsPublish date: 2009-02-23 10:02:19
Names round-upPublish date: 2009-02-22 08:43:39
What's in a name?Publish date: 2009-02-21 09:58:14
Editing the New StatesmanPublish date: 2009-02-20 11:42:36
Salute Peter M’s proper use of the F wordPublish date: 2009-02-19 09:58:58
Labour's communications challenge for the NHSPublish date: 2009-02-18 10:34:39
In praise of KeighleyPublish date: 2009-02-17 14:33:57
A night at the EmiratesPublish date: 2009-02-17 00:06:51
When marriage is testedPublish date: 2009-02-16 13:36:35
Spare me the myths and the whiningPublish date: 2009-02-15 13:29:50
Dave Cameron - is that all there is?Publish date: 2009-02-14 11:11:55
Boris Johnson: F is for ...Publish date: 2009-02-13 07:55:10
The Cameron vacuumPublish date: 2009-02-12 14:48:33
Lincoln, Obama, Blair and the 24 hour media culturePublish date: 2009-02-11 10:28:47
Eighteen interviews later ...Publish date: 2009-02-10 19:24:45
Time to talk about Time to Change on NewsnightPublish date: 2009-02-09 22:47:49
So that’s what they mean by online community?Publish date: 2009-02-08 12:12:51
First blogPublish date: 2009-02-05 15:23:57
richard
2010-04-14 13:39:38"Labour has shown it can manage the economy in the good times, and in the bad times that followed the economic crash."
Hahahahahahah. Joke, right? Abolished boom and bust and all that. Yes what a fool. Wait, you are serious? Really? REALLY??
jill newton
2010-04-14 12:35:24Cameron"s manifest sounded like something written by Enid Blyton: "Five Try to Run the Country". Cameron, Osborne, Hague, and er.... .....
madomasi
2010-04-14 11:49:06What I don't get is, if Britain is so broken, and hardly anyone votes how is it supposed to wake up on May 7th and form a Big Society? The Tory vision is aimed at those with money and time to vote in a government and then vote on the minutiae of local government. A soccer mom may have the time to sack a school board and build a new secondary school, but what of the single parent families where the parent is working two jobs? When is he or she supposed to do all this? I'm not a dyed in the wool Labour supporter but I want to elect a government that will govern! I don't have the time or inclination to do it myself. I want a government that's efficient and effective. I don't want to join it.
markmembers
2010-04-14 11:42:38"The truth is, he's been discredited by the world's leading economists, for his fickle response during the economic crisis; he's been derided his lack of vision in the recover, and he will lead Britain into a charnel house, and leave us there to rot."
Sources for these allegations please?
Paul
2010-04-14 09:39:19Sorry have i missed something.....What short memories we have!.... Am already preparing an emergency escape route in case MaggieRoon gets into office...Like i had to when the Tories were in charge in the eighties, i spent years working abroad away from my family because there were no jobs in Britain...and thats skilled jobs we are talking about....Rather like the Eastern Europeans coming here, be prepared to travel to avoid a Tory "Price worth paying". I only hope "Dave" hasnt upset our European neighbors too much by then and they slap a quota on us all...Remember your History Britain and beware!
Bar Bar of Oz
2010-04-14 02:43:36"We're in this together" ??????????????????
First image to mind is being stuck in a lifeboat waiting to be rescued. By Gordon and Alistair one has to assume!
Who is coming up with these appalling slogans at Tory HQ?
Robert Jackson
2010-04-14 01:48:46DIY NHS?
Yeah - lets go back to '45.
1945?
1745! Reunite the Surgeons with the barbers and hairdressers!
"Can I have a new hip and a short back and sides, please?"
"Yes we have a special offer for NHS patients - 20 haircuts before we can fit you in for the operation, guaranteed."
Patrick McMurray
2010-04-13 23:50:26Inheritance tax: why not have Gordon say "If you're in one of Britain's 2000 wealthiest families then, absolutely, vote Conservative, it will save you a fortune".
Would highlight this quite emblematic Tory policy ie help the rich, screw everyone else.
regards,
Patrick McMurray
Xavier Attwell
2010-04-13 22:48:23So happy the polls are narrowing once again. Despite Tax evasion money and an extremely bias media who never question the Tories and always take a negative slant on Labour policy people are not convinced by the Tories.
I have been canvassing in Putney for Stuart King and in Keynsham for Dan Norris and the response I get is definitely not positive towards the Conservatives and luckily I have rarely encountered people such as the one who just commented on your blog and calls himself an average voter. More like ignorant and daily mail reader to me.
Hope you continue the good work Alastair in showing the pitfalls in Tory policy because the likelihood of the media doing that is the same as William Hague's hair growing back and Chris Grayling saying he doesn't mind gays.
ps: and please make sure Brown doesn't sound to boring and look to frightening for the TV debates !
Ps
Simon Gittins
2010-04-13 21:55:58'they got every major call on the recession wrong'
Let's not forget which party led us, totally unprepared, into the worst recession for decades. Which party was governing the last major economy to 'limp out' of the recession and which party now presides over 'the economic black hole'.
A reminder ? the LABOUR PARTY.
How can you seriously boast about Labour's economic record. They inherited an economy in it's best shape in living memory and after 13 years of mismanagement and incompetence leave it in it's worst.
What sort of fool would vote for another 5 years ?
Colin Durham
2010-04-13 19:28:53Will the real Cameron ever stand up?
Now we know what the Cameron party manifesto is, I still am left asking will the real David Cameron stand up.
Citizen Cameron, now says power to the people, but what effect will his struggle actually achieve? Nothing on the economy, not the recession but a lot on Power to the people.
What happens after giving power to the people, and it fails, as it will, where do people, communities, and what is left go then. Cameron know where they will go, but isn't saying, whole communities will become divided and just like the Thatcher years we will see more social divide, riots and fringe groups hyjacking local issues.
His manifesto doesn’t give any confidence on how the Cameron party will manage public spending, the recession and the hope of building on what has been achieve not only over the last few months but the last thirteen years.
He promises to defend bus passes, disability living allowance, attendance allowance and no up front charging for care, but why say he wil save them, when no one has said anything about cutting them, what is the hidden agenda.
What is his future for VAT, taxation in general, education including student fees.
Be careful what you wish for and the Cameron Party, as we have learned in history any Dictorial Leadership, Cameron has become the Conservative party, if he isn't topman there is nothing and that is frightening very frightening.
How many of Hitlers henchmen were ever heard in the early years, and look what happened then. I am truly afraid who he will use as scapegoats, after the sick lame and lazy, and equally worried about who will be left to speak for me.
Just remember DIY Cameron, if he does get control you did Do It Yourself.
Average voter
2010-04-13 18:15:08I was asked by our local labour candidate why I would not be voting labour and explained that more than 3000 new laws, and endless assualt on our civil liberties, more than 100 broken promises, creeping state surveilance, legislation that allows bailiffs into people's homes without permission, an illegal war in Iraq, sending ill equipped boys to get blown to bits in Afghanistan, criminal mismanagement of state funds,a completely bonkers policy on Government spending and an UNELECTED LEADER was enough to persude me to tick another box.
She said I 'must' vote Labour. have I missed something? Its still a free country isnt it or have you lot managed to change that while I've been on holiday?
Dont let the door hit you on the way out
Chris Bell
2010-04-13 17:58:27Anyone who has ever been involved with voluntary work knows that it is getting harder and harder to recruit volunteers and those that do willingly give their time generally have less and less of it to give. Nowadays most women work - many in very demanding jobs and many men are also doing extra hours or hold down two jobs to help to make ends meet for their families. So Cameron's 'big idea' is to get ordinary citizens to volunteer their precious free time to run public services for the government - what world does he live in?? Somewhere back in the 1970s I think!
Graham Jones
2010-04-13 16:13:52It's more of the 'Old Testament' from the Tories, contrasted to a 'New Future' from Labour. From what I remember, there's an awful lot of carnage in the old testament, so we can see where the genesis of Tory policy comes from.
It's not a time to look to the heavens, cross our fingers and hope for the best. We need to follow the path to recovery, and not be distracted by empty promises.
The Labour manifesto is a fully costed programme of government, which is being honest and fair. It leads to not only recovery, but it builds a new economy for the next generation - the Tory manifesto, in contrast, is a shallow world play with no vision. It hands the rich and plaintive a loaded dice.
Cameron has missed the opportunity to show he is ready for responsibility - he's not. His answer to fiscal responsibility, is to employ a Dickensian pick-pocket (Osbourne) as Chancellor. The 'Artful Dodger' will wreck havoc with the economy, give hand-outs to the aristocracy and filthy-rich, put millions out of work and increase poverty, given the chance. Like Cameron, he's been raised with a superiority complex. He thinks it's his inheritance to be Chancellor.
The truth is, he's been discredited by the world's leading economists, for his fickle response during the economic crisis; he's been derided his lack of vision in the recover, and he will lead Britain into a charnel house, and leave us there to rot.
Nick
2010-04-13 15:16:33When Labour talks about 'building public services', what it really means is making more people beholden to its client state. Since 1997, Smoking Cessation Officers and Teenage Pregnancy Advisers have replaced steel workers and miners as Labour's core vote. All paid for by the wealth creating private sector.
pat marsh
2010-04-13 14:45:12poor old grayling
that was a public reshuffle planning meeting. also gove should be careful. methinks dave thought he talked too much
Charlie Reynolds
2010-04-13 13:57:46Really? Do even YOU believe any of that?
We have a huge structural deficit and our national debt will double thanks to Labour and Brown. Cuts in public service funding are inevitable - indeed Darling says they will be worse than Thatcher. So what can we do about it? Labour have no ideas at all - if you can't chuck money at it there can't be any other options surely!!
Cameron has introduced a very important idea. That all those of us who volunteer and work to improve things in our local communities will be supported and willed on by government in the future - not prevented from making progress as happens currently. There are so many perverse government led incentives and disincentives which prevent us now.
I would have thought that you would understand this - you crow about your grass roots network vs Ashcroft's cash. Do you not believe in this?
We can all point to wasteful government spending we have all come across. The worst of it is that we can also see how if just a small portion of that money had been spent in the right places - encouraging people who know their communities - we would all be so much better off.
I will be voting for Cameron and willing him on.
Bernie
2010-04-13 13:39:53Dontmindme must be one of the paid up Tory Troll Army right? No?
Surely only someone with a brief to monitor and post under a specific daily-news-agenda instruction from Coulson would be so interested and so outraged by such time stamps?
Is that how you're evaluated? If not, then why the OCD?
AC - a post on how they're regimented please?
Bernie
2010-04-13 13:30:49On the contrary, Gordon was, and is, absolutely right. I do not have the time, nor the inclination to 'shop around' for public services. I really don't. It's an incontrovertible fact that, one really can have too much choice. And be worse off because of it. I want accountable services, in a place where I know I'll find them.
Accountability is absolutely essential, and that's different. True inescapable accountability. The Tories just want to push all the responsibility for assessment and evaluation onto the citizen. How does that improve the lives of busy people who have better things to do? The answer is, it doesn't. But it's a classic way and formulaic way for the Tories to justify slashing, burning and hacking what have now become excellent and accountable services - certainly in my neck of the woods. And I'm in Hackney for Pete's sake. ;)
After all these years of investment, turning around and filling the horrendous vacuum left by the last Tory government, I really really do not want to see 'our' public services being run like sodding Argos.
Chris lancashire
2010-04-13 13:28:34"Labour has shown how it can manage the economy" It certainly has - total, total incompetence. Go into a recession, magnified by Labour policies, witha £40bn structural defecit. Squander billions of hard earned taxpayers money on crazy social engineering or just sell the country's gold at a £7bn loss.
Patrick James
2010-04-13 12:53:27My own feeling is that the idea of the DIY public services will appeal to some but in practice they just won't work out as planned.
The garages of the UK are full of unfinished DIY projects people abandoned once they found it was a lot more work than they imagined.
By and large people do like having input into the running of schools, hospitals etc, but they don't actually want to run them themselves.
----------
I was a bit amused to see that Zac Goldsmith is beginning to get worried about the future of the BBC under the Conservatives.
He likes the BBC it seems but now he's worked out that his party has it in for the Beeb. Rubert Murdoch needs payback for all that Conservative support in his papers.
I think Zac Goldsmith should have thought about things like this a bit earlier than now.
Nick
2010-04-13 12:04:43"There is no dispute about involving people in the running of public services. All 3 partties are in favour of that".
--------------------------------------------------------
I am currently reading the impeccably sourced Andrew Rawnsley book on New Labour 2001-date. He reveals that the principal stumbling block to consumer choice in public service was ...wait for it.....one Gordon Brown.
When asked why Brown was so opposed, you got a truly immortal answer, which really sums up Labour/Campbell's attitude both to the electorate and so called public services.
"Brown does not think most of the public would be able to make an informed choice".
In other words- 'we know better'. Its time for change.
s chapman
2010-04-13 11:17:08Alastair - can you not understand that GB and the Labour govt made the UKs situation much worse in the recent crsis.
GB lead in creating a debt culture,made the public sector so enormous that the rest of us will be paying for decades for the pensions of these very lucky people...why should we??
When you yourself make few bob selling books do you go out and spend it all or put some by in savings or pay off debts maybe? Obviously you do like we all try and do yet GB decided not too in his wisdom,he spent it and them some ! - please dont keep going on how GB saved us from worse - anyone could have done what he done by spending 1 Trillion quid on it!
The point is why did we save Northern rock? North-east votes perhaps? It should have been closed down once the savings of people were transferred to a place like the Post Office say.125% mortgages should have been outlawed long before Northern Rock went t*ts - GB should/will be always associated with debt...thanks a lot Gordon
Dontmindme
2010-04-13 11:04:06Strange. Are the BBC's clock wrong? Your messages was posted at 10:37. That's 37 minutes into the future when i read it. So thats how New Labour did it. Time travel.
The labour party cant even tell the truth about the time.
Cheap trick, pathetic one at that.
Jamie Edwards
2010-04-13 10:53:33"It is not just about the investment we put in and the Tories opposed."
I despise this word 'investment'.
'Investment in public services', 'investment in health'.
It is SPENDING and sometimes SQUANDERING, not investment. It would be an investment if we could get an equivalent or more-than return at the end, but we consistently don't.
The Labour firehose has sprayed cash on public institutions with few reforms (and when there have been reforms, they have been poorly thought out, "relentless and ideological, which have misappropriated billions away from patient care" (to quote the British Medical Association).
We consistently lag behind counterparts in Europe for value for money in public services. We've matched health spending in Germany/France, but we receive a steady 20% less (in terms of life and survival expectancies, access to treatments, etc).
It is not 'investment'.
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