Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Cuts to Schools Building Programme | |
Posted by: | Adam Gray | |
Date/Time: | 20/07/10 00:39:00 |
Actually, very little PPP (depending on what you mean by that term) was wrapped up in BSF - PPP was principally used in the hospital rebuild programmes that preceded BSF. BSF has only been around 4 years and has transformed hundreds of schools, and completely rebuilt over 100. That is a massive tick on the positive side of the ledger, and while I'm sure there could have been efficiencies, the sane answer to that is to identify them and then deliver them: not axe the entire programme. There is an equally troubling issue of course, which is that with both free schools and the back-to-the-future plans for GP fundholders, the Conservatives are transferring massive chunks of our taxpayer money into the hands of utterly unaccountable bodies where there will be no one to hold to account. And I accept that this has been happening for the past two decades under both parties. But health and education are massive absorbers of public money; this transfer dwarves anything Labour ever attempted. This is a huge issue: because it's a further erosion of the link between politicians supposedly being held responsible for decisions on the big isses we care most about, like health and education. Soon it really will be a legitimate question to ask what's the point of voting - not because "they're all the same" but because they really will be powerless to do anything about anything. |