Blair to defend public service reforms
Blair to defend public service reforms
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Tuesday, 16, May 2006 08:47
Tony Blair will today stress that "continual modernisation" is the only way in which public services will survive in the 21st century.
Defending Labour’s controversial health and education reforms, the prime minister will tell UK industry representatives that the key question facing future governments will not be whether public service reform should take place, but "just how fast it can be driven" in order to meet new global challenges.
Speaking at the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) annual dinner Mr Blair will warn that Britain can "either embrace globalisation or be engulfed by it".
According to extracts of his speech released by Downing Street, the prime minister will say: "Continual modernisation is the only way public services in the 21st century will survive the constantly rising and changing demands and expectations of the public."
"The key question facing the government and every government in the foreseeable future will not be whether to abandon public service reform but just how fast it can be driven as our world changes rapidly around us," he will add.
Mr Blair, who has faced heightened speculation about when he intends to leave office following Labour’s poor performance in this month’s local council elections and a series of political scandals, will use the speech to defend the government’s planned education reforms - opposed by some Labour MPs because they will introduce a greater role for private funding within the sector.
Appealing to rebel Labour parliamentarians he will stress the need to establish more trust schools and city academies, along with the need to provide higher quality vocational education.
Speaking ahead of next week’s parliamentary vote on the education reforms, which only survived an earlier vote with the support of the Conservative party, the prime minister will stress the need to "drive forward" the "vital" changes in order to equip people with the skills they need.
Mr Blair is also expected to defend Labour’s health reforms, which sparked outrage within the nursing profession following reports of planned NHS job cuts amid mounting financial deficits in the health service.
Acknowledging that the health service reforms will be "painful and difficult", the prime minister will however insist that the changes are necessary in order to avoid the "pain of the slow death the NHS would suffer in the 21st century if we left it frozen in time trying to meet the hopes and fears of people in 2008 with the attitudes and practices of 1948".
Trumpeting Labour’s management of a strong and stable economy, the prime minister is also expected to tell CBI representatives that Britain has the weapons to "win the battle of economic supremacy in the 21st century," stressing the advantages gained from the country’s flexible labour market and its strong science sector.
Mr Blair will also emphasise the economic benefits gained through Britain’s place "at the heart" of the European Union, alongside its close relationship with the United States.