Letters | 28 March 2009

No progressive

Sir: David Cameron’s article last week (‘It is not enough for Labour to lose this election’) mentioned the post-bureaucratic age ten times. Mr Cameron loves this phrase because it was coined by a progressive — Al Gore’s former speechwriter Andrei Cherney. And as the April date for Mr Cameron’s proposed £5 billion cuts to welfare, skills and charities draws near, he’s clearly hoping that endless use of nice slogans will keep his progressive credentials in check. The slogans however mask the reality. The Conservatives continue to advocate for unregulated markets in public services when no one is even arguing for them any more in the private sector.

In health, scrapping basic standard guarantees and siding with doctors to restrict access for patients does not yield progressive ends. It yields postcode lotteries, first-class services for the few — the aggressive middle classes — and second-class services for the many. Asking the market to determine which schools stay open in deprived communities rather than intervening in underperforming schools makes education a gamble, with the government sitting idly by as poor schools (or should I say poor kids) wither on the vine.