“It’s like Blair and Brown — but without the acrimony.” So sayeth one
Cabinet Office source, describing the prolonged build-up to today’s public services
White Paper to me a couple of months ago. His point was that, although the yellow and blue halves of the Downing Street operation are genuinely chummy with one another, their differences can
still put a block on reform. In his story, the Tories are like Blair, striving to go further, faster, stronger. Whereas the Lib Dems can occasionally stand in the way.
So what has been blocked from the White Paper? Listening to David Cameron today, you wouldn’t guess that anything has been. “Let me assure you of this,” he said in his speech this afternoon, “we are as committed to modernising our public services as we have ever been. I’m not going to make the mistakes of my predecessors — blocking reform, wasting opportunities and wasting time.”
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