Public versus Private

Whilst I was away David Cameron made a speech about the public services. I nearly used the hotel computers to post about it and did in fact type about a paragraph before giving up.

I've just managed to read Iain Dale's opinion on the speech, and I agree with him. I wouldn't consider myself a die-hard Thatcherite mind you, but it's certainly true that when it comes to private or public sector management of services we should not be driven by ideology. That is - in my view - the fundamental failure within Thatcher's radicalism, it pretty much became a theological position that the private sector and the market was always better.

The problem with that argument is it assumes that when the market produces the most efficient outcome that it is also the most beneficial. We only need to look at some aspect of privatisation to realise that the assumption is wrong. That does not mean though that we must extend the state. It is simply an acknowledgement that sometimes the state might actually be the most effective option in seeking solutions to some of our problems.

As Cameron also said, we've spent the last ten years moaning about the public services and not acknowledging where they succeed. At the same time we've tended to avoid talking about the failures of privatisation. Cameron is right; we do need to change that too.