Old hat from Duncan Smith
From Mr John Bourn Sir: I am growing weary of reading claims in the right-wing press that lain Duncan Smith has put forward 'fresh new ideas' for improving the public services. Really? Where are they?
On health, he has merely spoken vaguely about 'extending choice'. Conservatives have been saying this for years. It is hardly new. How you do it in practice is more difficult. The problem with tax breaks for private healthcare is that many of the beneficiaries might already have been planning to take out private health insurance. All you are doing is subsidising the health insurance premiums of the better-off, which hardly seems a productive or equitable use of public money.
On education, Duncan Smith has proposed that parents of children at failing schools should be given vouchers to send them to private schools. But what happens if, even with the vouchers, they cannot afford private school fees? What if there is no suitable private school nearby? And just how do you define a 'failing school' anyway? Most objectionable is the way that, as in healthcare, the benefits of Duncan Smith's 'greater choice' are to be given only to those who can afford it. If choice is such a good thing, shouldn't it be available to all, rich and poor?
Duncan Smith has, we are told, spoken about the environment. Indeed he has. He said that looking after the environment was a good thing, which is rather like praising motherhood and apple pie. Has any politician, anywhere, ever said we shouldn't protect the environment? There was also a vague proposal to give tax breaks for solarheating panels — a worthy idea, but one hardly likely to get Kyoto protesters rushing to join the Conservatives.
John Bourn
Gateshead, Tyne and Wear
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