Ken: Public services not just for the poor
The Conservatives must put the improvement of public services at the heart of their approach to government, Ken Clarke said last night.
Many people still believed Tories wanted to privatise public services “in order to save money and then cut taxes for our rich friends”, the leadership hopeful said.
But he insisted that the Conservatives must work to restore faith in the party, to give them the mandate to bring about the radical reform required.
Mr Clarke condemned Labour’s “ill-thought out and incomplete agenda” on public services, saying they had proved themselves unable to deliver reform or produce results.
What Britain needed, Mr Clarke said, was a choice in institutions supplying treatment, care and education, and more public-private partnerships.
There needed to be less targets and more of an emphasis on local delivery and local accountability, he insisted – Labour’s approach so far was driven by a “naive belief” that health and education services could be run from Whitehall.
One major stumbling block in the view Conservatives have had towards public services is that they are for the poor – but Mr Clarke insisted having a good local hospital or school was “as much a middle class issue as a working class one”.
Nor did they have to be provided by the public sector, he continued, although the state did have a vital role in regulation.
One of the most important aspects of public service reform, however, was that it was just that – reform. Mr Clarke said voters had to be shown that extra investment on public services was being spent carefully.
“We must show them that Labour’s approach to public service reform is to have an open chequebook – our approach is to have an open mind,” he said
Part of this efficiency in spending was recognising the benefits of putting budgets in local hands, he said, while at the same time maintaining the stability at the centre to “smooth out swings in demand and resources”.
“Conservatives should approach the subject on a human scale at local level and not just on the basis of number-crunching and bureaucratic efficiency,” Mr Clarke concluded.
“Our concern is for pupils, parents and patients – not paperwork, press releases and policy units.”
