The problem with Brown's latest Big Idea

There’s some very readable stuff in this week’s Economist (including a leader which outlines what Brown’s government should – but almost certainly won’t – do with its “last months in power”). But if you read only one article from it, make sure it’s the Bagehot column and its dissection of Brown’s latest Big Idea: public service guarantees.

These are the pledges-turned-legal entitlements which popped up throughout the Queen’s Speech – such as the “guarantee” that patients will have hospital treatment within 18 weeks of being referred by a GP. As Bagehot points out, it’s a problematic approach:

‘To be worth the manifesto paper they will be printed on, public-service guarantees need to be readily enforceable. It is fairly easy to see how those that are to be bestowed on groups or communities might work. A school is failing; parents complain; something is eventually done. But the situation for individuals seeking to secure their rights in a hurry is fuzzier.