Oil-and-water politics
Peter Hoskin 2:00pm
In an article for the FT, Gordon Brown makes his strongest commitment yet to public service reform. As he puts it:
"...there can be no backtracking on reform, no go-slow, no reversals and no easy compromises. Indeed, to meet these new demands it is now time to go further and move to the third stage of reform where we not only further enhance choice but also empower both the users of services and all the professionals who deliver them to drive up standards for all."
Powerful stuff. Another step on the Damascene road to becoming a Blairite. Yet - as I've said numerous times before - I'm not convinced. Why? Because Brown is the architect behind our taxed-and-spent economy, and his Government has put reform into retreat in so many areas.
Besides, he's now getting his rhetoric into a muddle. One of the best recommendations behind reform is that it can deliver more for less; reformed public services can achieve better results at a lower cost to the taxpayer. The other side of the same coin: spending cuts needn't mean worse services. Why, then, does Brown - supposedly a believer in reform - still persist in peddling the line about the Tories wanting to make "damaging" cuts to public spending? He wheeled it out again at last week's Spring Conference.
Increasingly, Brown's statements are becoming like oil and water: they just don't mix. Until they do, it's hard to take this born-again Blairism seriously.
Previous
Comments
Verity
March 10th, 2008 2:51pm"Powerful stuff." Surely you jest! It's pompous, windy, verbose, self-justifying, empty quangospeak. Notice he doesn't refer to a single fact. It's just a great gush of hot air.
Pete Hoskin
March 10th, 2008 3:01pmVerity: it was a bit tongue-in-cheek! As I hope this post - and previous ones of mine - demonstrate, I suspect Brown's words on reform are just as "empty" as you say they are.
madasafish
March 10th, 2008 3:01pm"but also empower both the users of services and all the professionals who deliver them to drive up standards for all." Like NHS dentistry? As Verity said, your "powerful stuff" comment is clearly inappropraite.. loads of ##### is perhaps more relevant
Pete Hoskin
March 10th, 2008 3:06pmmadasafish: see above!
Mike
March 10th, 2008 3:13pmIt's just about closing down areas of political debate with the Tories. See! We're all for public sector reform. That NuLab won't do anything other than talk about it is beside the point. More lies.
Slim Jim
March 10th, 2008 3:53pmBrown mentions the 'third stage of reform'. I can't say I'm familiar with the first and second stages. Could it be: Stage 1: Take a public service that works; Stage 2: Break it, yet claim it to be a success, and even convince the media & public. Maybe Stage 3 is when they try to put it back together again whilst mumbling about change, growth, choice, accessibility, etc. Oh, and blaming the Tories...
CS
March 10th, 2008 4:29pmPowerful stuff, my lower colon. What is the tendency in recent weeks for The Coffee House to report the most futile and facile announcements by anyone in politics as if it were earth-shattering news? Brown hires a new PR team - SHAZZAM!!! Brown makes a meaningless speech on the public services which says nothing and ties him down to even less - KAPOW!!! Are you afraid that, if you don't constantly bombard us with opinion for its own sake, we'll lose interest and go elsewhere? The converse is more likely.
Tiberius
March 10th, 2008 4:36pmSo tomorrow's fish and chip paper won't be pink as it's full of content unfit for contact with food. Peter, it is sometimes difficult to convey irony or even sarcasm on a blog without smilies.
Madasafish
March 10th, 2008 4:38pmIt's clear what he means:"no backtracking on reform, no go-slow, no reversals and no easy compromises" ID cards are coming. He's going to let there be a major super casino in Manchester. Oops sorry those are reforms that appear to have been backtracked...
Pete Hoskin
March 10th, 2008 4:53pmTiberius: point duly noted!
Chuck Unsworth
March 10th, 2008 4:54pmWhat in God's name does it actually mean? Reform of what? Third Stage of what? Backtracking on what? This man speaks in cliches. I'd guess he thinks in cliches, too. He doesn't actully understand what he is mouthing. These platitudes, revolutionary slogans etc mean precisely damn all. Sorry Mr Brown, would you please just go back to the beginning again? I've lost track of the narrative. This is total, unfettered, unadulterated, Grade A testicles. About time that he and his colleagues learned to put some simple english (yes, English!)sentences together which actually relate to reality. Just tell me what you've done with my cash - apart from record tractor production or whatever it is you're blethering on about. Over a decade in office - for what, exactly? Is Brown seriously of the view that everything is getting better all the time? If so why have we had to have a state of constant Cuban revolution? Where and when did the grandiose NuLab Scheme start to fall apart?
Ted Tedford
March 10th, 2008 6:12pm'His' articles read like they've been written by someone using the Westminster wonk version of fridge poetry magnets. I bet you could take the FT article, cut it up into separate subordinate clauses, pull them out of a hat at random and arrange them into sentences. You could produce an almost infinite supply of articles that would read at least as coherently as anything under the Brown byline.
TrevorH
March 10th, 2008 8:55pm"...there can be no backtracking on reform, no go-slow, no reversals and no easy compromises. " Come on everybody, when Brown says this he really meansd the exact opposite. Does ANYONE really take anything Brown actually SAYS seriously? Does anyone believe that when Brown opens his mouth it is to communicate, rather than obfuscate? If so tell us which planet you have just landed from. Two words, "smoke" and "mirrors".
Themisive
March 14th, 2008 11:12amWhen a person is elected to Parliament, he/she is elected on a set of promises to THEIR electorate, NOT to toe the party line. Why cannot the Government - all the parties, not just Labour - allow more free votes. It brings to mind that song from HMS Pinafore "He always voted at his parties call/never thought of himself at all"