Blair seeks to relaunch domestic policy agenda
Prime Minister Tony Blair sought to reclaim control of the political agenda this evening with a major speech on domestic policy, setting out once more Labour’s programme of investment and reform.
Mr Blair’s speech comes in the wake of confusion regarding last week’s reshuffle and attacks before the Foreign Affairs Committee by former colleagues Robin Cook and Clare Short – who explicitly accused the Prime Minister of deliberately deceiving MPs over the case for war in Iraq – earlier on Tuesday.
Addressing the Fabian Society at the Old Vic Theatre in London, the Prime Minister insisted that Labour’s first six years have been about redressing the ‘progressive deficit’ – that is, the shortfall in quality public services compared to other European countries – inherited from previous Governments.
‘What we are trying to do, the core of our second term programme in rebuilding the public realm, re-energising public services, and the scope and reach of what they can achieve – is big, radical, very difficult to achieve and long term’, the Prime Minister insisted, stressing that the success or failure of this programme ‘will define what kind of country we live in not just this year or next year, but for this decade and long after’.
The first term focused on inspection and auditing mechanisms, he suggested, whilst the second focuses on investment and reform – and he defended the reforms that the Government has put in place, refuting the critics of specialist schools, City Academies, Agenda for Change and greater NHS patient choice.
Rather than creating two-tier systems in education and health, Mr Blair argued that choice for the majority entails better quality services and boosts’ equity’. Choice between high quality services gives realistic choice to the worse-off, keeps the better-off within public services and increases the pressure on providers of poor services, he declared.
Labour’s goal, the Prime Minister concluded, is to make the cultural changes its reforms hope to achieve irreversible. He warned, ‘never underestimate how much the centre of gravity of British politics shifted to the Right in the Eighties. Never underestimate the cultural change needed, the battles that must be won, to shift it back to the centre left and to prepare Britain for the future’.
However, attention will be back on the Government’s troubles tomorrow, as Mr Blair comes before the House to explain the implications of his reshuffle – notably the seemingly snap decision to abolish the role of Lord Chancellor, and the Scottish and Welsh Offices.
Many would also suggest that Mr Blair’s problems come at a time when the Chancellor Gordon Brown is in the ascendancy – following his apparently successful deflection of the euro issue and the departure of Alan Milburn, a serious rival contender for the Labour leadership, in last week’s reshuffle.
Mr Brown delivers his annual Mansion House speech tomorrow evening.
