I've never really understood why people complain about postcode lotteries. Unless we want to have everything centrally controlled by Whitehall then this is how things will be. Some councils/police forces/NHS trusts will prioritise their funds in different ways which is why some people pay less tax, and some people have different services.
As long as the people that make these decisiosn are democractically accountable then there's no problem. If you don't like it, then you can either vote them out next time or you can move house.
Personally, I don't believe there is enough of this "postcode lottery" business. There's not sufficient room for local councils to run crazy initiatives and try and do things radically different (and radically better). This is because the rules we operate within are tight, and a lot of our funding from central government dictates the way that we behave.
The Conservatives are to launch a paper on decentralisation today - I hope it gives more license for lotteries.
Tuesday, 17 February 2009
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I hope the substance is better than the trails on BBC news over the last day.
The story started off by saying the Tories had undergone a Damascene conversion of the benefits of greater powers for local councils, interspersed with pictures of Thatcher (the arch-centraliser) waving on the steps of Downing Street.
The story then talked about the new Tory proposals for elected mayors for big cities (yawn, this idea has been kicking around for years) and local referenda to determine spending decisions (bad idea, and guaranteed to emasculate local government since nobody wants to pay for anything).
I fully support greater powers for local communities/councils, but is there any more substance to Cameron's plans?
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