The Coalition government is being very active at an early stage with several announcements some of which haven’t got obvious benefits.
For example handing over control of NHS budgets to GP’s. Are GP’s really in a position to determine an areas health needs and which GP’s have the time, desire or capability to do that. On the plus side of this change the cost of the NHS is escalating far beyond affordability and its processes appear to be subject to bureaucratic, political and political bureaucratic interference. If this move changes that then it will be for the good.
Stopping the school building programme has given the impression that some schools will never be updated when surely it would have been better to reschedule the plan. That the current scheme has a massive cost and tailor designing all of these schools must be creating a lot of extra costs are points in favour of a change.
The ‘free’ school plan has never appeared an obviously good idea if it means running several schools in one area and if pupil selection is financial. Although it isn’t clear why parents should be prevented from schooling their children the best way they can.
Reducing police budgets seems a strange policy for a Conservative led government and the statements about reducing speed cameras sounds good until accidents start to increase. Even if the increase is really due to the end of the recession increasing traffic it will be difficult to control the message. It might have been better to leave things where they are rather than reduce it.
The latest announcement about Trident being included in the Defence Budget puts further strain on what already is a very shrunk and inadequate level of funding for defence.
Today we visited a couple of buildings from the time Britain had a strong industrial and economic base. In effect we have exported to developing countries the poor conditions we once experienced so we have cheap shirts. It seems the time is getting closer when our standards will decline as there is competition for resources from newly rising economies. At some point we will need to learn to accept less government benefits and more individual enterprise. If these measures put off that date by improving our performance then they will be worthwhile.