I just wanted to give a quick demonstration of the utterly facile nature of the Conservatives at the moment:

What’s gone wrong? Again if we don’t understand why Labour are failing we won’t succeed. I think it’s because the reform has been topped down. Targets imposed from above, endless re-organisation…

…we’ve got to scrap those top down targets and trust our professionals in the NHS…

…we’ve got to replace those process targets with measures of outcomes that’s what people care about…

…we will reform the police. We will cut out that paperwork, we will get rid of the performance assessments, get rid of the targets…

(Source: Cameron’s 2007 conference speech, BBC News – my emphasis)

Please ignore, for the moment, the idiocy of talking about how ‘measures of outcomes’ are completely different from targets to consider two news articles from the past week:

The government has denied a Tory charge that it has dropped targets for reducing truancy in England’s schools.

(Source: ‘Pupil absences reopen controversy’, BBC News)

The Conservatives have attacked the government over plans to “deep clean” English hospitals after ministers said it would not be centrally monitored.

(Source: ‘Hospital deep clean ‘a gimmick”, BBC News)

Which is it then Dave?

(Edit – oh, and in this article on Jack Straw: “in a speech to Cambridge University’s law faculty” – I was there! )

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