One way of cheating at this blogging lark is not to write one's own opinions but just point readers to another article one agrees with.
In this case rather than write at length on the nonsense of Ken Livingstone's supsension as Mayor of London, I am happy to point readers to Alex Wilcock's posting on the subject at Love and Liberty , with which I agree wholeheartedly.
Also there was a good piece (follow 'Listen again' links on the Today programme this morning in which Steve Hitchens of Islington was interviewed about his own battle with the Standards Board.
1 comment:
Iain...superb on Irving given your views and background. You have exposed the silliness of the "free speech" arguments put elsewhere by less thoughtful liberals.
The irony of the ban on Livingstone is that it is exactly the sort of thing he supports. eg banning people from public platforms who make stupid wicked comments.
On John Harris I think you are wrong. Where Harris has always scored well is exposing the myth that "privatised " services work well or better than those delivered in the public sector. Nobody seriously suggests that rail privatisation was any sort of success with the tax payer and the rail user paying more for an inferior service under privatisation. Health provision by the private sector is more expensive and almost impossible to access if you are actually ill with some long term ailment.
Cleaning in hospitals has deteriorated for reasons set out very lucidly in "So now who do we vote for"
Is there any example of a reduction in bureaucracy when public sector bodies move from "providers" to commissioners" of services.? I cannot say I have come across an example as mostly the needs for contracts monitoring etc add further bureaucracy.
There is a clear need for large public sector bodies such as councils Nhs trusts etc to work across departments better and to provide "joined up services" sticking services into the private sector simply makes this less likely to happen. Large private sector companies in areas such as banking , heating etc are just as unresponsive as much of the public sector if not more so.
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