Pick of the papers

Brown = Blair Mark 2?

Andrew Rawnsley writes that all three of the leaders of Britain’s main parties are fighting over the same patch of narrow ground when it comes to management of public services. This has important implications for the old or new Labour debate and also the question of whether a consensus exists between parties. It also impacts upon voting behaviour since this will be one of the defining issues at the next election.

Rawnsley writes:
On Friday, I listened to the Prime Minister take questions at a forum organised by Policy Network. In this conversational format, Mr Brown came over more engagingly than he does when he is thumping out a speech. Perhaps it is because you can hear him think. He offered a persuasive narrative that Britain had to move beyond the ‘old’ idea of the state offering only ‘the uniform provision of standard services’. The new world was one in which ‘diversified demands’ would be met by ‘diversified suppliers’.
This marks both a political and an intellectual shift by the Prime Minister. When he was at the Treasury, he and his predecessor had their most ferocious and paralysing battles about Mr Blair’s attempts to introduce more competition into the delivery of health and education. Mr Brown began his premiership by offering himself as the Anti-Blair. He now appears to have realised that he will not win the next election on that basis. Nor will it be enough to present himself as the ‘safety first’ candidate for Prime Minister. ‘You can never count on the status quo,’ he told this meeting.
So, please welcome the latest version of the Prime Minister: Brown with added Blair. He promises a major expansion of city academies. He embraces using private companies to run welfare-to-work programmes. He wants the elderly to manage their own care budgets. He enthuses about ‘personalisation’ of health care in which ‘the individual will be driving the service’. In the wonderful new world described by Mr Brown, teaching will be fashioned around the needs of the individual rather than ‘taking a class of 30 and giving the same lesson to everyone’.
What about any differences between Labour and the Tories?

There remain crucial differences in emphasis between the Prime Minister and David Cameron. The Tory leader thinks that the private and voluntary sectors can do hugely more. He is predisposed to believe that they will nearly always do it better than government. Mr Brown puts more stress on the indispensable role of the state, arguing that when volunteers and the private sector can’t or won’t provide, the state has to be there to pick up the vulnerable and disadvantaged. Where they speak as one with each other and with Nick Clegg is about empowering the people.

Read the full article here