Among his plans outlined in the Open Public Services White Paper, the PM would like all public services such as libraries, schools, parks and health services, to be run by or run in conjunction with businesses, community groups and charities.
David Cameron said ”the new plans are about ending the old big-government, top-down way of running public services, releasing the grip of state control and putting power in people’s hands. The old dogma that said Whitehall knows best – it’s gone. There will be more freedom, more choice and more local control. Ours is a vision of open public services.”
However, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said that the White Paper was nothing less than a manifesto to break up public services and was being “smuggled out” while all attention was focused on the News International story.
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People should be very afraid by what these proposals could mean, he said, adding: “Of course they are skilfully wrapped up in warm words, but when the Prime Minister talks of charities and voluntary groups, he means parcelling up public services for private companies; when he talks of ending top-down control, he really means introducing a postcode lottery with few winning tickets; and when he talks of fairness he means new opportunities for the sharp-elbowed middle classes to push others aside.”
And Gail Cartmail, assistant general secretary of the Unite union, said: “The thought that parish councils are suddenly going to become business moguls, like Rupert Murdoch, running health services and libraries smacks of something out of a Carry On film.
“Our councils, for good or ill, are elected to spend our money – and when we lose faith in them we can dispatch them at the ballot box. So why break this fundamental relationship of accountability – or is the real intention to replace the state with the private sector?”
She went on: “The public are not fooled. They know that this is not about improving service quality. This is entirely about shrinking the society we have built up through our taxes and the endeavours of working people in the generations since the war to build a fairer Britain where quality services were available to all. Cameron’s speech will demoralise public sector workers in this country.”
