Tom Richmond: Coalition can’t duck responsibility much longer

If David Cameron is to be believed, judging by his repetitive answers at Prime Minister’s Questions every Wednesday, he intends to use this line of defence for the duration of the current Parliament.

That takes the country to 2015 if the coalition survives that long – a prospect that appears increasingly uncertain by the day.

The reality, I believe, is very different. Following next month’s Budget, effectively George Osborne’s third setpiece financial speech, and the end of the financial year in early April, I’m afraid Cameron’s line of defence will not hold.

He will have had nearly a year to put right the workings of Whitehall and ensure that an element of common sense be introduced to the policy-making process – one of the promises that he was making prior to the election.

For, as two convergent stories proved this week, some actions by the public sector are so lacking in compassion that the political “blame game” is even more irrelevant.

In opposition, Cameron called for heads to roll over Labour’s mistreatment of the Armed Forces. Yet his Ministry of Defence saw fit to sack 38 soldiers by email – including one officer currently serving in Afghanistan.

It is not good enough for Liam Fox, the Defence Secretary, to blame his Labour predecessors for poor budgetary control – this happened on his watch. So, too, did the premature sacking of trainee pilots shortly before they get their wings, another absurdly short-sighted decision that this Government has taken.

Likewise, the absolutely appalling report by the Health Service Ombudsman in to the callous treatment of the elderly in so many hospitals – with many patients left unwashed and some even denied water. A son’s harrowing account of his mother’s death was enough to make one weep.

Though the reported scandals took place between 2009 and last year, making it more difficult to apportion blame, a society should be judged by the respect, compassion and care offered to its most senior citizens.

When the Ombudsman’s next report comes out, there will be no hiding place for Cameron and the coalition. It will cover their jurisdiction and Ministers should begin to recognise this. Not everything wrong with this country is Labour’s fault.

TALKING of the “blame game”, Employment Minister Chris Grayling’s media team were touting round a piece this week saying that the record level of young people out of work was the fault of the last government.

When asked whether Grayling’s article could outline the practical measures that he was putting in place to help young people in Yorkshire, I was told that this was not the point and that it was about apportioning responsibility.

Talk about complacency.

EVEN though Tom Riordan’s salary as chief executive of Leeds City Council is, at £176,367.50, significantly lower than the package accrued by his predecessor, there are some in the coalition – Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles for one – who want town hall bosses to go even further.

It is why Pickles wants councils to authorise every salary in excess of £100,000. However, according to those in the know, there’s one reason why councils are reluctant to do so. Evidently, it is important that local authorities think ahead for the time when they need a new chief executive, and the need for a salary package that attracts the highest calibre CEO.

I disagree. I still believe the fairest system – for council chiefs and the residents that they serve – is a policy where a significant element of the salary is performance-related. It means senior executives only being eligible for extra money if their council achieves certain targets.

What are they afraid of?

PERHAPS Eric Pickles is being motivated by the likes of John Fareham, the leader of the two-strong Conservative group on Hull Council.

His budget proposals – which will not be implemented – including scrapping the authority’s call centre contract, which will save £433,000.

It will, says Fareham, lead to a better service for residents. “They can ring officers directly. They can talk to the organ grinder and not the monkey,” he advises. You know where the idea has come from when it becomes national policy.

THE Energy Minister, Charles Hendry, says communities will be offered council tax discounts or cheaper electricity as part of plans to increase the number of wind farms in Britain.

This, to me, sounds like a bribe rather than an underscoring of the coalition’s so-called localism agenda, which appears to be only applied when it suits Ministers.

I NEVER thought I’d write this but perhaps Michael Martin – “Gorbals Mick” to his friends – wasn’t such a disastrous Speaker at all. At least we didn’t have a verbatim commentary from his wife. If only the same could be said about Mr and Mrs Bercow.

CONGRATULATIONS are due to Ewen Murray, the Sky Sports pundit. While his contemporaries suck up to Tiger Woods, he had the courage to condemn the fallen golfer for spitting on a green last weekend.

“Disgusting, what he has just done there... there are some parts of him that are just arrogant and petulant. Somebody now has to come behind him and maybe putt over his spit. It does not get much lower than that,” said Murray.

These remarks were not blown out of proportion. They were spot on.

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