The Blairite permanent revolution

I find myself asking the question again. Why did the Coalition decide to cut and reform at the same time? In terms of raw electoral politics it cannot be explained. If Cameron and Clegg had come to power promising not to tinker further with the health service and the education system, but simply to manage the cuts they would have had a much easier ride. Welfare reform is a different matter – popular in principle but devilishly difficult when it comes to the detail.

Matthew d’Ancona captures the scale of change well in his Sunday Telegraph column:

‘At breakneck pace, the Coalition has set in place blueprints for fiscal recovery, a welfare revolution, dramatic schools reform, a structural overhaul of the NHS, a transformation of the higher education system, a bonfire of the quangos, and radical devolution to councils and communities. The next four years will be consumed by the slow, painful enactment of these strategies.