A peek at Gordon's vision

One of the surprises of Gordon Brown’s premiership so far to date, is how little substantive policy there has been. Pretty much everything Brown has done has been about political positioning—putting the Tories in an awakward spot, distancing himself from Blair and the like. As Rachel Sylvester argues in the Telegraph this morning a positive Brownite agenda has yet to emerge.

Sylvester thinks, though, that the recent hiring of Richard Brooks and Nick Pearce from the Institute of Public Policy Research hints at what Brown has planned for public service reform. She notes that a report the two contributed to shortly before been hired by Brown stressed the limits of the market in public services and instead argued that “schools and hospitals should be made more convenient for users, rather than being forced to compete for patients and parents. They should also be controlled locally, rather than from Whitehall.”

This approach would be distinctive and allow Brown to muscle in on the localism agenda. But ultimately it strikes me as a sticking plaster solution to the problems of public service. Anyway, now that Brown won’t be heading to the country before 2009 he’ll have to start grappling with these problems.