Portrait of the Week – 16 October 2004

Mr Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, coined the phrase ‘opportunity society’ to describe his objective in reforming social services and policing; National Health Service spending on independent providers of diagnosis and treatment would rise ‘significantly’, and specialist schools would become ‘near universal’. He also said, ‘We must change the culture that can write people off at 65,’ by which he meant people would have to work after 65 because of poor pension provisions. Mr Alan Johnson, the new Secretary of State for Pensions, said in the Commons, ‘Means testing is a crucial part of our policy.’ Mr Adair Turner’s government-appointed Pensions Commission revealed that the gap between what people needed to save for retirement and what they are saving amounted to £57 billion. It said an unpalatable choice would be to raise taxes, but Mr Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, jumped in two days before the report to say he would not do that.