Duncan O'Leary
Duncan works on projects looking at public services, skills and work.
at 6:51pm
on Thursday, 1st September 2005
Despite all the cliche's about 'lame ducks', i'd say Michael Howard has successfully prompted a genuine debate about the direction of the Tory party. He hasn't given his party the opportunity to simply adopt a default position, meaning that it really has to think through what it's all about.
So, public spending - is the question what you spend or how you spend it? What role for the market in public services? Are foundation hospitals such a bad idea after all? What about top-up fees? ID cards - a good idea or an infringement of our liberties? And what kind of international role should the country be playing?
Surely you can't win a leadership contest lasting over 6 months without staking out some kind of philosophical position that helps answer some of these questions, can you...?
Despite all the cliche's about 'lame ducks', i'd say Michael Howard has successfully prompted a genuine debate about the direction of the Tory party. He hasn't given his party the opportunity to simply adopt a default position, meaning that it really has to think through what it's all about.
So, public spending - is the question what you spend or how you spend it? What role for the market in public services? Are foundation hospitals such a bad idea after all? What about top-up fees? ID cards - a good idea or an infringement of our liberties? And what kind of international role should the country be playing?
Surely you can't win a leadership contest lasting over 6 months without staking out some kind of philosophical position that helps answer some of these questions, can you...?
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