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Alistair Darling today signalled a radical overhaul of public services after the election, including much more use of the private sector.
In a keynote speech in Cardiff, he served notice of a round of modernising reforms that could mean more firms delivering services in the NHS and elsewhere.
His vow that the state would "step back" will alarm Labour MPs who this year rebelled to halt the part-privatisation of Royal Mail.
The Chancellor also promised spending cuts to curb the budget deficit - though not until after the election, saying cuts should not come until the economic recovery was "established".
However, marking a victory in his battle with Gordon Brown over whether Labour should even admit the need for public spending reductions, he said cuts would come.
"This will mean, as Gordon Brown and I have already made clear, hard choices on public spending," he said.
"We won't flinch from the difficult decisions that will be necessary."
Reader views (5)
Perhaps some private sector firms will be more value for money?
However MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS are most certainly not much value as evidenced by their over use in the US and UK - the two economies who walked our economies into the mire. Like much of the investment banking sector, most consultants services are a CON.
- Gabriel, Essex
Sounds like another Labour smoke and mirrors gambit to me.
- Rogan, Irving
Darling ought to take "study leave" and apply to one of the enterprise schemes for re-training because he will be out of a job next June and - judging by his performance to date - he will be unemployable in the private sector.
- R.F., Yorks, UK
Hang on a minute. Scratch beneath the wafer thin veneer of Darling's proposal and what do we have: replacing public sector services with private sector services.
Firstly, this will cost more because the private sector will inflate their prices to compensate for the inevitable delays and changes that working with government bureaucracy will cause. Secondly, the departments involved will still require small armies of administrators and penpushers to manage the private sector contracts, thus saving little or no money. Thirdly, and most importantly, it will never work because the private sector will get little or no support from the incumbent civil servants.
Buzz off Darling, your ideas are as unworkable as your eyebrows are bushy.
- Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one
Why is anyone paying any attention to what this incompeptent fool is saying? He will not be in government long enough to make a start on fixing the mess that he and his Politburo colleagues have made of this country.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster
