Purnell talks the left's language
James Forsyth 7:09pm
James Purnell’s speech to the ‘Progressive Governance’ conference in Chile is an interesting bit of political positioning. On the one hand, there’s a very Blairite argument that with the recession there is even more need for public sector reform, an acknowledgement that money is not the sole determinant of the quality of a service:
But this is combined with some language that will warm the cockles of the oldest Labour heart:“the years of rapidly expanding spending on public services are over. The continuous improvement to public services which we have seen for a decade now cannot stop. But more money will not be its motor force. We will be forced, by sheer weight of necessity, to get more for each pound. That means the debate about how to reinvent public services, how to improve outcomes through reform, is an urgent necessity. In a world of change, we cannot promise people a quiet life.”
But perhaps the most interesting bit of the speech is the last two sentences:“We need to recognise that income inequality is just part of a wider struggle against the inequality of power.”
When it comes to politicians of the left letting go of power, I’ll believe it when I see it. But there is an interesting similarity between this and Jon Cruddas’s comments about the need for change to come from below not above. This seems to be fast becoming a new dividing line within the Labour party. To the Blairites, who know they are too small in number to set the direction of the party on their own, it offers a chance to build ideological alliances across the party.“This is the lesson of the centre-left moment - not that we, the politicians acting as the state, take more power for ourselves. Quite the opposite - we let it go.”
Previous
George Laird
March 27th, 2009 7:30pm Report this commentDear All
I look at James Purnell and he looks like a little creep who will say anything for advancement.
I like to think myself a reasonable judge of character and he hasn't got any.
I am usually right on these matters.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Barry
March 27th, 2009 7:41pm Report this commentDid we pay for this jolly or did the Labour party pay for it? Hopefully the latter.
Ed B
March 27th, 2009 7:59pm Report this commentHas anyone noticed the striking resemblance between James Purnell and Tim from The Office (Martin Freeman)?
Dirty Euro
March 27th, 2009 10:02pm Report this commentThis just sounds like he is saying we we won't give the poor money we will just give them more choice. In other words give them less but the FREEDOM TO CHOOSE with less cash.
Who is going to fall for that?
It is just a right wing justification for taking away public services under the pretence that the people will get to choose what they do when they have public services taken away from them. Well if they have no money they just don't get any public services apart from witch doctors and quacks.
Olaf Rye
March 27th, 2009 10:44pm Report this commentI would love to see the public services severely curtailed--after all, do we really need all these sycophants in the 'Health and Safety Executive' or those utterly useless representatives of the public sector that take your telephone calls and cannot do anything nor answer any questions ? We could also do without 'gay outreach officers' in the NHS. So, for Dirty Euro, we can take away lots of public services without anyone noticing their loss except those sycophants that have fed at the public trough for years because they are unemployable in the private sector.
hysteria
March 28th, 2009 1:18am Report this commentGeorge - that was a very interesting post that really allowed us to understand the key issues and perhaps reformulate our thinking on this key political question of our time - thanks
David Ossitt
March 28th, 2009 7:18am Report this commentGeorge Laird.
I am in total agreement with your comments.
I would add; that he is what I would call a bit of a chancer, a flim flam merchant, he could not sell me a dodgy photograph.
And so I certainly will not buy any of the dross; that he from time to time, excretes.
JONNY
March 28th, 2009 11:38am Report this commentNice sideboards though, Mr Laird.
You got to give him that.
Fernando
March 28th, 2009 12:46pm Report this commentI noticed a letter in this week's magazine by Liam Byrne responding to an article the previous week by David Cameron, which seemed to take different line to Purnell. I was struck by one sentence because similar sentiments seem to be behind other recent left-wing comments. Byrne said that ‘the Conservatives continue to advocate unregulated markets in public services when no one is even arguing for them any more in the private sector.’ The implication was that because we had lacked effective regulation in the banking sector this meant we needed more regulation everywhere.
Those of us working in business outside the financial sector see it very differently. The one area – banking – which needed effective oversight and has received it in the past, suffered under the defective regime Brown set up, and this was compounded by a poor management of the economy and government spending during the economic cycle. The present crisis is a crisis of government not a crisis of capitalism.
Not only do we not need more regulation in the non-financial section of the economy, but we also certainly don’t need a reversal of the choice agenda in public services. Byrne sees something wrong with parents being able to set up new schools where the old ones have failed and he advocates a shift of power to ‘frontline public servants’.
Byrne has struck me as a man eager to please and someone quick to see the way the wind is blowing in the leadership of the Labour party. So I can’t believe his views are untypical: more top-down reform, more bureaucracy, more of ‘the public servant’ knows best.
George Laird
March 28th, 2009 4:26pm Report this commentDear Jonny
With his sideboards; he should try for a part on Life on Mars!
I am sure the British public would chip in a few quid each for a rocket to send him to the real thing though.
One way.
Yours sincerely
George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University
Wilhelm
March 28th, 2009 9:32pm Report this commentGeorge Laird boasts ''I am usually right on these matters.''
Humble as usual. eh?
Back to top