CentreRight

Is everyone losing the plot on education? Some choice and some selection are better than none.

A powerful piece by Tom Utley in the Daily Mail today criticising the latest government assault on the little that's left of choice and selection for parents and schools. Recently, matters have actually just got worse, because those who surely know better, like Dr Anthony Seldon, are going native. Is it really so wrong to want the best you can afford for your children and for schools to make an informed decision about who they take on?

Olympic and National Lottery fiascos point way to public sector reform

Why can't we have some deflation in public services for a change?

News that the Big Lottery Fund - a super quango encharged with distributing funds to the good causes -  spends 12 per cent of its budget on administration, six times more than some well-known charities and has has an astonishing 1,103 administrative staff despite a falling income –  comes as no surprise to those of us who have been arguing for lottery reform for some time. 

These kinds of balooning costs are all too common in the public sector. That's because - quite unlike Camelot who runs the National Lottery - there is no competitive pressure to reduce costs and improve service for those quangos distributing the funds. If Camelot fails, it loses its license. When did a quango last get sacked for being cost-ineffective?

Public bodies will always come a poor second to Companies or even Charities in the cost-effective and quality provision of public services. They just don't feel under any commercial threat.