Choose Gordon

Steve Richards, in his Independent column this morning, gives the clearest explanation of where Gordon is - and has been - on choice in public services. It's a nuanced position - and as such hard to communicate - which is probably why the messages coming out of the Treasury and Downing Street have seemed at times contradictory.

I remember him telling me during the explosive second term that nobody could be against "choice" in theory. He joked that a candidate in a US election had adopted the slogan "Choose Freedom", as if anyone would argue "against freedom". Similarly, he was not "against choice". His concerns related to resources, the need for surplus provision in order for choice to be effective, and the way in which Mr Blair was rushing to achieve his objective with a sometimes indiscriminate bias in favour of the private sector.

Mr Brown was never opposed to the use of the private sector and was quite capable of deploying it indiscriminately himself, as the recent catastrophic case of Metronet and the London Underground demonstrates.

Comments

[Alex Swanson]

as if anyone would argue "against freedom".

Erm, this govt routinely argues against freedom; control orders for example?

Erm, but it argues for them on the grounds of security (and thus freedom to live/right to life). Duh.