Pace and change

I OFTEN ask constituents: Hows the Government doing? The responses are usually positive. Coalition still feels novel and a leaderless Labour Party is yet to begin the renewal that will surely come.

I believe we have got off to a strong start. The pace has been like I imagine it would have been during Labours radical post-war Atlee government. I believe that this government has much in common with that administration in that it has both extraordinary pace and radical intent.

We have already set in place the pathway for dealing with the debt; we have passed the Academies Bill; we have announced far reaching changes in health and we are formulating one of the most radical approaches to welfare reform this country has ever seen.

There is an overarching change that towers over all this; it is represented by the ambition to transfer power from the state towards individuals, families and communities. Much of the governments programme supports this.

The genesis of austerity may have been the debt but the result will be the Governments share of national expenditure falling from 50% to less than 40%. A 20% relative drop.

A state rolled back, an economy rebalanced towards production, stronger growth bringing more to spend on front line services, less bureaucracy and waste. And with it I personally hope for something more fundamental still that we achieve better care for our vulnerable whilst gaining a stronger sense of personal responsibility and self-belief an idea so long ago lost in a post-war world that sought too readily to provide from the centre, too quickly to prescribe rather than liberate, too often to crowd out the individual, the family and the community.

If this government addresses this it will have achieved much.