Monday, August 15, 2011

Changes happen very slowly

David Cameron's speech at a youth centre in his constituency today was interesting and it is difficult to disagree with most of the things he said. However it did strike me that there was something very familiar about what he said, and I don't mean the line which could have been lifted from Mrs Thatcher's September 1987 Woman's Own interview I touched on last week. It was the 120,000 families line that seemed familiar, and indeed it was. He had made the same promises in December 2010 at a meeting with representatives from Relate. In fact the idea of spending money on these families first came into the public domain on 22nd October 2010 in the Community Budget Announcement.

The wheels do grind very slowly in Government and looking through the small print it would appear that this current £30 million plan is all part of the 2010-15 fiscal policy. I think as with a lot of issues David Cameron has found out, in typical Yes Minister fashion, that there is a big timelag between wanting something to happen, planning for something to happen and then seeing it actually happen.

Over the past ten months this particular well intentioned initiative has been a vision, an ambition, a wish and a pledge, let's hope that within the next ten months we can says it's now a reality.

2 comments:

Span Ows said...

Indeed! In fact I have just replied to a comment you left on my blog re left/right: DC's speech is all well and good: wonderful words that need equally wonderful ACTIONS. I do get seriously pissed off with politicians: I hate Brown and Blair and I am getting pissed off with the Coalition because I hate mealy-mouthed platitudes and waffle: actions speak louder and all that...

Paul said...

I think a lot of people wonder why things take so long and find it very frustrating.