Downing Street Says » Domestic Agenda

Looking ahead to the business for the next few days, the PMOS advised journalists that crime, health, education and anti-social behaviour would all be highlighted by Ministers this week through announcements and events. Asked if the Prime Minister had instructed Ministers to focus on domestic issues, the PMOS said that he wouldn’t characterise it in that way. It was clear that the public wanted the focus to be on the domestic agenda. The Government was just as keen for that to happen. This week there would be a considerable amount of activity across the main delivery departments. Of course that was not to suggest that the last few weeks hadn’t seen a similar amount of activity. We accepted the fact that, as a result of the Hutton Inquiry and its aftermath, there had inevitably been more of a focus on Iraq-related issues. That was not to say that those issues were not important. They were. However, it was important for people to recognise that they did not define the totality of the Government’s agenda. They clearly did not.

Asked if this week’s ‘flurry of activity’ represented an ‘admission’ that the Government had not done very much over the past seven years to address the concerns of voters who were becoming increasingly apathetic as a result, the PMOS said that this week was about the Government continuing to focus on the bread-and-butter issues which affected people up and down the country, just as it had done over the past seven years. Voter turnout was an issue which all political parties had to address. It was clearly something of concern to democracies the world over. This week should in no way be seen as an admission on the part of the Government that it hadn’t done anything on the domestic agenda. On the contrary. It should be seen as a continuation of the existing public service reform agenda. Asked if he would accept that voters were being turned off because they were not receiving anything from the Government in return for their vote, the PMOS said no. Issues relating to voter turnout were very complex. This Government had delivered a sound economic platform, low interest rates, low inflation and record employment levels. All this was allowing us to invest in our public services. Of course, we would not claim for one second to have cured all the failings. However, we were working hard to put right some of the problems which had been inherited and to ensure that our public services were more responsive to the needs of their users.

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» Monday, February 9, 2004

Domestic Agenda

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