Opportunity Lost or Paradise Postponed?

The Coalition's much vaunted Programme for Government has arrived and the direction of our next five years is fixed. I suppose the rumours were always too good to be true. The idea that centrally imposed government targets would cease and that Strategic Health Authorities would be abolished clearly sounded good on paper but in the cold light of day did not survive the political process. What has been announced is certainly a change - much of it for good - but is diluted compared with the promised land.

The guarantee of real term increases in NHS spending is of course welcome but, if we have learnt one thing from the last 13 years, it is that spending without proper guidance is shackling. Cutting administration and quangos is also to be encouraged; giving frontline staff more control of their working environment sounds good but many of the statements are somewhat vague - some might say suitably vague at this early stage - and the devil may yet emerge with the details. But overall the document does provide some grounds for cheer and so one can only hope that it heralds bolder and more liberating reforms further down the line. Great oaks from little acorns grow.

I grow tired of hearing that 'the public voted for a coalition' as though the public is one large sentient being. Some people may have cast their vote in the hope of electing one or other party; others may have voted tacically to keep out their least favourite; others may have indeed voted in the hope that a hung parliament would result. We shall never know. But one thing is for certain and that is that we, the public, did not have a pre-election mass huddle to determine who would vote for whom and where. The result is a statistical one borne of millions of votes and, whilst the numbers may vary, is precisely what would happen if we adopt PR. Coalitions would be the norm. So the fact that this document represents much watering down and postponement of the tough decisions pending 'commissions' should not be too much of a surprise. If we reform our voting process it will be a template for future similar publications - every five years. Our duty for now is to try and make it work.

Therefore we should not lose heart entirely but remain optimistic about the intentions of our new coalition - or rather not the intentions but their (to use government's own term) ability to deliver. Bold moves inevitably lead to polarised responses from the media and public alike and in the current vacuum of political certainty that accompanies the first coalition since the war, no one can accurately predict which way the mood pendulum will swing. Better then to introduce measures piecemeal and buffer any negative reactions than to risk it all on the first hand. This is not a Miltonesque tour de force that was published today. But let us hope that it heralds a paradise to be regained.