Douglas Carswell's Blog

Public services controlled by the public - each individual one of them

Over the past sixty years, the political class has managed to produce 62 Health Acts and 44 Education Acts. They have yet to draft a law that puts the public properly in control of public services.

What we need is a simply law that gives every patient and parent a legal right to control their share of the health or education budget if they are unhappy with what officialdom provides.

In my latest Telegraph blog, I imagine what would happen if every mum and dad had a legal right to request and receive control over their child's share of the local authority budget.  Or if you could insist on controling your share of the local primary care budget and giving it to a local GP you trusted.

Would it lead to chaos, waiting lists and unmet expectations?  That is what the current system too often produces.

The digital age means that public services can now be hyper personalised.  We live in a country were we can personalise our playlists, yet we still have to make do with what generic public services hand us.

The citizen consumer will not tolerate this for much longer.  

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