The sad death of the Tory ‘can-do’ spirit.
For the past decade we have had to listen to Tory excuses about how this or that improvement to the country is not possible. It is a strange and sad death of the Right’s ‘can-do’ spirit of endeavour.
The Tory Manifesto promised very few changes to the status quo. As the IFS put it ‘the lack of significant policy action is remarkable’. What happened to resolving the big problems the nation faces? All the usual excuses — ‘we cannot afford it’, ‘it won’t work’, ‘it will be too expensive’ and so on — are offered to justify not doing very much.
How is it that we have become so petrified of challenges? What happened to positivity, to the ‘can-do’ spirit? When have we become afraid of improving our own country, of investing into our future, of making Britain the world’s most desirable place to live? Yes, building one million houses in 5 years is a big challenge — finding the land, the money, the builders, the materials — but Clem Attlee, amid postwar austerity and disrepair, managed it. Modernising NHS is a big challenge — but Blair gave it a good crack. Of course, there were problems — a lot of the postwar housing was shoddy and the New Labour PFI deals were an outrage — but it is the mindset that only focuses on the problems and not on the positives that is remarkable. Have we really become a nation that shirks every challenge it comes across?
It hardly needs to be said that we are talking about vital future investment here. As a rule, problems, if not fixed, get more and more expensive with time. If you do not build sufficient affordable housing, the housing market becomes distorted and the state ends up shelling out big money in housing benefit. If you do not build enough social housing, the local authorities will have to spend staggering sums on emergency housing when yet another family ends up homeless. Investing in preventative medicine and checkups avoids having to perform expensive emergency procedures later; likewise investing into mental health support means less police and NHS time wasted dealing with suicide attempts. Investing into education and youth services, alleviating child poverty saves having to deal with social problems and crime later. I could go on, but the theme is always the same: there are many instances in which a problem caught early is far cheaper to resolve.
What stops us is a culture of fear of spending. Whilst a private business is lauded for audacious spending decisions, a government is castigated. Because, supposedly, the state cannot invest. It cannot run things. Well, what is wrong with being positive and saying ‘yes, but we will ensure the public sector adopts the necessary expertise and learns from the private sector how to do those things better’? Instead of complaining, think of how to improve governance, make Britain the gold standard of how to run the public services. It is a far more enterprising option than merely outsourcing responsibility to the private sector.
Gavin Barwell put the attitude across perfectly when he said ‘the more the Government tries to do, the worse job it does’. To this, a flippant response would be, if you think so badly of Government, why did you even want to be part of it? Stand aside and let those who actually believe in the power of Government to do good run it. Otherwise, it is like having a doctor who doesn’t believe in medicine or a policeman who doesn’t believe in fighting crime. He followed it up with the usual sob story of how it all ‘just doesn’t work’. Well, make it work. You are paid a salary, entrusted with power, so do something useful with it.
Instead, the Gavins step aside, declare themselves impotent and throw open the door to anybody else. Perhaps this is why the ‘go-getters’ and the ‘can-do’-ers of other countries are running so many of our national institutions. The French national company EDF competes on our energy market, the Germans win our rail contracts, the Chinese have a stake in the national grid. Of course, British businesses also heavily invest abroad — they do not suffer with the same malaise as their government. However, it is only a matter of time until it spreads to them and, coupled with the rotting infrastructure and the decaying public services, stops them being competitive.
We need to rediscover our self-belief, to think once again that we, as a nation, can take radical steps to improve our country. We have heard enough excuses to fill a lifetime: now is the time for actions.