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Health and Education

I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and the Government Front-Bench team for their understanding in allowing me to leave the Chamber briefly earlier in order to see my daughter's nativity play. Even though we all face tough economic circumstances, I know that all hon. Members will want to find time in their schedules for seasonal festivities. I was particularly pleased to read about the great fun had by all at the Christmas party held by the Secretary of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families. I understand that, as well as wine and canapés, the Secretary of State also laid on for members of the press a Scalextric demonstration, a Nintendo Wii and some Star Wars light sabres. Those were not products acquired during the seasonal sale that Woolworths has just launched to celebrate the life-saving effects of the recent VAT cut; nor were they the toys that the Prime Minister threw out of his pram on hearing what the German Finance Minister thought of his policies. They were, in fact, there to help members of the press celebrate the first anniversary of the children's plan. I also understand that the climax of the party was a light sabre duel between the Secretary of State and Mr. Michael White of The Guardian, modelled on the epic duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars—these are serious times and we need serious people. I also understand that the Secretary of State won, and I am sure that, as he triumphed, he uttered the words that the Home Secretary spoke to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green) just the other week—““May the force be with you””. But whether or not we believe in the force, and the power of the dark side, I am sure that we can forgive light-heartedness at this time. Of course, some hon. Members may have been in good spirits yesterday for reasons other than the formal anniversary of the children's plan. They may have been listening to the Prime Minister taking pride in his global rescue plan. Well, we now know what the man in charge of Europe's biggest economy thinks of that. The Prime Minister may believe, in his more modest moments, that he is Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the truth is that he is closer to a political Max Mosley: he thinks he is king of the world and he has clearly got money to burn, but all people remember is that he got a terrific spanking in German. [Interruption.] Thank you. We have had a good debate this afternoon. My hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) brought his customary authority and gravitas to discussion of the NHS, underlining his reputation as a stalwart friend of health professionals everywhere. The Secretary of State for Health made the traditional partisan points with his customary lightness of touch and discussed forthcoming Bills in a way that reminded us why he is such a valued member of this Government. The hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) brought his considerable intellect and passion to bear, and I welcome the increasingly reformist focus of Liberal Democrat health and education policy. The hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr. Sheerman), the Chairman of the Select Committee on Children, Schools and Families, spoke comprehensively and well, and with particular authority on the need to improve child protection. My hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh), Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, combined a proper regard for efficiency in the public sector with pungent prescriptions for reform, not all of which I necessarily share. The hon. Member for Gateshead, East and Washington, West (Mrs. Hodgson) made a series of telling points on the need to improve support for children with special educational needs. My hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, North (Mr. Scott) spoke with great passion about the need to improve the service that his constituents get from the NHS. He also made a powerful plea on behalf of children with special educational needs. The hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Siobhain McDonagh) spoke persuasively in favour of the NHS constitution, using her constituency experience to powerful effect. The hon. Member for Birmingham, Yardley (John Hemming) spoke, as he has done so often and with such passion, on child protection. In an intervention, he asked specifically whether we agreed with the terms of Lord Laming's inquiry. We do not, as we made clear in a letter to Lord Laming. We fear that they are too narrow. We want Lord Laming to ask not just whether his recommendations in 2003 are being followed, but whether we need to do more to reform the child protection system. Lord Laming has said that the foundation of current children's services is robust, but we are not persuaded of that assertion. He also argues that serious case reviews, including the serious case review into baby P, should remain confidential. We disagree. We have nothing against Lord Laming as an individual—indeed, he was patron of the commission on social workers, chaired by my hon. Friend the Member for East Worthing and Shoreham (Tim Loughton) just the other year, which produced many recommendations that the Secretary of State now appears to be implementing—but we think that it is important, as I am sure the whole House would agree, that there is no bar on serious questions being asked on raising the bar in child protection. The hon. Member for Bury, North (Mr. Chaytor) made a characteristically thoughtful contribution on child protection and schools policy, and my hon. Friend the Member for Rugby and Kenilworth (Jeremy Wright) spoke movingly and effectively about what we can do to help those living with dementia. I can freely praise one or two speeches that I was not able to hear in full because the notes taken by my colleagues on the Front Bench have been so generous. I can also praise the Secretary of State's speech, which I have not yet heard, because I know what is in it—not because it has been leaked to me by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, but because he displays an admirable consistency in the political message he propagates. Whatever the occasion, wherever the platform, whoever the opponent, he repeats the same line: we on the Government side are saints who are investing in stronger motherhood and much more apple pie, and the other guys—it can be Scottish nationalists, Liberal Democrats or even German Social Democrats—are monsters from the Jurassic era who will cut, cut and cut again. Psychologists have a term for people who repeat the same behaviour over and over again, whatever the circumstances and whatever the efficacy. They call it obsessive-compulsive behaviour. But any such diagnosis of the Secretary of State's approach would be mistaken. Another psychological term captures his approach much more accurately. It is called transference. Transference occurs when people accuse others of behaviour which they themselves exhibit. If Jeffrey Archer accuses someone of embroidering the truth, that is transference. If Simon Cowell accuses someone of arrogance, that is transference. If Peter Mandelson accuses someone of irresponsible leaking, that is transference. When the Secretary of State accuses others of wanting to inflict cuts, that is actually what he has been doing. Before the last election, the Secretary of State told us that a Tory Government would reduce future spending by £35 billion, but now his Government are reducing spending by £37 billion. His own Department is not immune. Let us look at some of his budgets, such as the budget for Building Schools for the Future. On school building, he has failed so far. We were promised 200 new schools by the end of this year. We have had fewer than 20. Now local authorities have had to go cap in hand to the European Investment Bank for money for school building because none is available in Britain. The pre-Budget report says, ominously:"““DCSF is assessing the value for money of Building Schools for the Future””." A senior Treasury source was quoted as saying of the school building programme that"““it's clear we're going to have to scale it back and scrap some considerable parts of the programme.””" On child care, the Secretary of State has failed so far. We were promised by the Prime Minister that we would have for every three and four-year-old an entitlement to 20 hours of free child care, and we were promised an extension of that entitlement to all two-year-olds. But again, in the pre-Budget report we are told that that entitlement will not be extended to 20 hours for three and four-year-olds, and the entitlement for two-year-olds will not be extended to all—so cuts again. On diplomas, the Secretary of State has failed so far. We were promised that 50,000 students would take these new qualifications—then 40,000, then 30,000, then 20,000. Now the number is 12,000 and falling. In a parliamentary answer that I received today, we discover that funding for diplomas is going down as well. It is being cut from £117 million in 2008-09 to £78 million in 2010-11. That is a 34 per cent. drop in funding. So there are cuts in that programme too. I feel sorry for the Secretary of State having to make these cuts. It is not his Department's fault. He should really take the matter up with the team who have been responsible for economic management over the last 10 years and who have landed us in this mess. Perhaps he should have a word with the man who has been principal economic adviser at the Treasury for the last decade: the chap who designed the regulatory regime that allowed the banks to behave as they did. I commend to the Secretary of State an article in today's Daily Telegraph by Dr. Irwin Stelzer, who says:"““It is beyond question that Britain's problems stem in part from its fractured regulatory system, with responsibility split between the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority, and the Treasury. A close study of the relevant documents fails to reveal that this system was forced””" upon us by the United States, says Stelzer, adding that"““it sprang full blown from the brains of Chancellor Gordon Brown and his sidekick, Ed Balls.””" The guilty men are there in front of us.