Conservatives attack target culture
The Conservative leadership has launched an attack on the target culture in Labour’s policies.
Conservative leader Michael Howard told a press conference that the problems were the same across the public services – notably in health and the police – and said the Tories would give power back to the frontline.
The anti-target drive comes after a British Medical Association survey suggested doctors felt clinical needs were being harmed by the target to treat patients within four hours and the row over the funding of Nottinghamshire police, after its chief constable suggested his force was understaffed and overwhelmed with paper work.
Mr Howard said he believed and trusted in people to make the right decisions and: “That’s why a Conservative Government will give power back to people: to the doctors, nurses and teachers who know better how to care for the sick or teach children than ministers and bureaucrats in Whitehall; and to the police who want to take the fight to the criminal but are handcuffed by political correctness and paperwork.”
He said the Conservatives would scrap central targets for hospitals and cut back on police paperwork, inspections and targets.
Mr Howard added: “People will face a clear choice at the next election: between a Conservative Government that will trust local professionals – teachers, doctors, nurses, teachers and policemen – to run our public services in the light of local needs or ever more political control, ever more targets, and ever more bureaucracy under Mr Blair. “
The Liberal Democrats also say that they would cut bureaucracy in both health and the police. Their health manifesto, launched this morning, promised to cut bureaucracy.
And home affairs spokesman, Mark Oaten, said the Lib Dems would provide more police.
Mr Oaten, said: “The Liberal Democrats would put 10,000 more police on the streets and cut the amount of time officers spend filling in forms.
“We would commit money to revolutionise police technology. We would swap notebooks for laptops to create a police force better equipped for the 21st century.”
Labour politicians have consistently maintained that targets are necessary to measure progress and have also contributed to improved public services.
