Tonight:
9°c
Lord Mandelson's admission that the Government may delay plans to part-privatise Royal Mail is a foretaste of the Prime Minister's coming difficulties. The legislation had been timetabled for next month but with only a few weeks left before Parliament recesses and fierce backbench opposition to the plans, it seems ministers may have lost their nerve. That does not bode well for the new direction which the Gordon Brown will today attempt to set for the Government's approach to public services.
The privatisation of Royal Mail should be a relatively minor issue but it has assumed a much greater political importance. Royal Mail is in a mess, its pension obligations overwhelming and its ability to modernise severely limited. Privatised or not, though, it is hardly a make-or-break election issue. The danger for Mr Brown, in the wake of a catastrophic few months, was that a Commons vote would turn into a chance for disgruntled backbenchers to flex their muscles, thereby precipitating yet more wobbles over his leadership. He now appears to have decided that it is better to be accused of a U-turn now than face another full-blown crisis as he heads into the dog days of summer.
Instead, the PM today launches his plans for the NHS, and implicitly public services more widely, guaranteeing new enforceable "rights" for users. There will, for instance, be a right for anyone diagnosed with cancer to see a specialist within two weeks. All those over 40 will be able to get a free health check. In theory, this is part of a move to give the public greater control over public services - the next stage of new Labour's reforms, sweeping away the targets culture of the Blair years. The reality, however, is much crueller for Mr Brown.
For aside from window-dressing over rights, looming cuts in public spending will make any concrete promises on new services a chimera. Mr Brown and some loyalists may still be claiming they will not cut, in contrast to the Tories, whom Lord Mandelson today promised to "outspend". Yesterday the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, denied that cuts were inevitable, and No 10 slapped down Environment Secretary Hilary Benn for his admission that spending would fall.
This is either dishonest or economically illiterate: the Government's own forecasts show capital spending plummeting from next April. This is the real political battle now: empty promises over public services will do nothing to hide the grim choices facing whichever party forms the next Government, thanks to the disintegration of the public finances under this one.
Grow Your Own
IT'S not just the Londoners lucky enough to have allotments who can grow their own lettuces and tomatoes this summer. Our Grow Your Own campaign aims to prompt us to look afresh at our homes to find spaces, however tiny, where herbs or beans or salad can find a foothold. There is nothing like the sense of achievement that comes from nurturing a tiny seedling to the point where it can be brought to the table.
And the achievement is all the greater when it happens in an urban setting, rather than the easier conditions of a country garden. Window boxes, balconies and even windowsills can all be used for pots that are decorative as well as productive. Rosie Boycott, enthusiastic convert to the pleasures of home-grown vegetables and chairman of the London Food Board, will provide inspiration in her column every Thursday. Just don't forget the watering when the temperature is as high as today's.
Feeling the heat
OF COURSE the Tube will be sweltering and the tarmac will be sticky. But heatwaves bring a holiday feeling to the capital. It's a chance to dress light, take lunch in the park, and enjoy the blue skies while they last. For dedicated sunworshippers, it could even be the day to catch a long sunset over the Serpentine. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Reader views (3)
Gordon Brown? Telling us what he is going to do next?
Surely the country already told him what to do next......GO AWAY......YOU ARE IRRELEVENT......WE ARE NOT LISTENING ANY MORE.
The biggest problem here is that Gordon Brown isn't listening either, he never did and he never will.
- Ronnie, Billericay UK
'Making New Laws on the Hoof at a Rush' has been the social policy of New Labour from day one.
It is like a comedic version of the 'Lord of the Rings'. Tony Blair, Gordod Brown, Mr Mandelson, and all the party hacks of ZaNuLab absolutely have come to beleive that 'Laws will sort all societies ills!'.
Mind you, being lawyers such as Teflon B'Liar - all this does make sense, becasue they can make a killing in cash from other peoples misery - and they do!!
So today we have the consequences of ill thought out legislation, all done with a mixture of good intention and vindictive Marxist 'control'. The results we can see typically is in the 'Yumin Rites Act' - a pernicious, vindictive and much abused peice of 'Law' if there ever was one. All done with good intentions, but the UK version of this is a stinking, rotten heaving Dogs Mess!
So lets all be good citizens, believe in the Great Poobah Gordon Brown and his 'Merlin the Wizzard', Lord Mandelson, as we all dance our way into oblivion following the 'Yellow Brick Road..!"
- Uncle Vanya, East Anglia Area UK
It doesn't really matter now what Gordon Brown or the Labour party say. As someone who suffers from high blood pressure i'm now calm about what they say. Its meaningless. We've all sat next to the deranged and deluded person on a bus or somewhere similar at some time - shouting the odds. It becomes funny. To cope you secretly laugh with the other passengers at the unfortunate persons life. You don't know them but you all agree that its not you its 'him' that's weird. And so its happened with this government. No one listens and we know they are talking rubbish. We are past the tipping point. Everyone agrees; we are simply past listening to the Dead parrot party. There's an election looming, i'm trying to keep a business going and care for my family. Do you think that GB and his clan have anything to say of any use to me or anyone else? No, i don't either. I think i probably speak for the others on the metaphorical bus. The bus will soon have the deluded and pathetic passenger removed and normal service will resume. The best thing about this government is that we - the electorate - have started to agree on just about every aspect of how things should or could be sorted out. I'm off to the betting shop to check the fast narrowing odds on Gordon Brown retaining his seat at the election.
- David S., Ealing
