On the day that Gordon Brown’s set to back a raft of new welfare proposals, Melanie Phillips launches an incisive attack on the Government’s past attempts at reform in this area:
“Today is supposed to prove that the pure flame of Blairism has been re-lit in Downing Street with the publication of the Government’s latest wheeze for reforming welfare
According to some breathless advance spinning, this will resurrect a “radical” Blairite plan produced last year by the banker David Freud for contracting out welfare delivery to the private and voluntary sectors, proposals that were reputedly squashed by the then Chancellor, Gordon Brown …
… But delivery is merely the end of the process. Any real reform of welfare depends on what policy the system is delivering. And on this crucial point the Government has not yet given any sign that it will get to the heart of our welfare malaise.
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