Christabel Gurney: It is not choice we need, it is democracy

I have no problem with one-size fits all public services, they just have to be good services

I took my seat in the Winter Gardens yesterday afternoon for the party leader's speech, hoping like many other delegates to be reassured by Tony Blair on the two big issues of this year's conference: Iraq and the Private Finance Initiatives. My own background includes many years of working in the Anti-Apartheid Movement and on overseas development issues. And my constituency, although surrounded by wealthy parts of London, is itself very multi-ethnic. The neighbourhood in which I live, familiar to people throughout the country and even the wider world, as the home of the Notting Hill Carnival, has severe housing and other inner-city problems. Public service provisions are very important in my constituency.

I was glad that he began by acknowledging, if jokingly, that there is great uneasiness in the party about what we are doing in government. But after that, he went in quite hard, from his remark that the only way to deal with dictators is "a readiness for war" to his declaration that we are now in the "post-comprehensive era". His argument for replacing what he called the post-1945, "monolithic provision of public services" with an "enabling state" seemed to boil down to his saying that in the modern "individualist" era we must see citizens as consumers who are concerned mainly with choice.

Personally, I have no problem with what Blair called "one-size fits-all" public services – they just have to be good services. I was disappointed by his emphasis on choice and the introduction of private capital because, supposedly, we cannot pay for public services through taxation. After all, other European countries do it that way, and they provide excellent services. If you have good provision, you don't need choice. I'm glad, as the Prime Minister pointed out, we are now spending more than the Tories did, but going into PFIs is mortgaging the future. And why should private companies make more money out of the public purse?

As to replacing comprehensives with different kinds of schools, I'm very worried that the only result will be that better off people get better provision. I'm particularly worried about faith schools – in the area where I live there is a large Muslim community, along with people from many different ethnic backgrounds. I think it is essential that children grow up together.

I'm not against all of his proposals for reform. I agree, for example, that waiting lists at doctors' surgeries could be shortened if nurses could attend to less serious complaints, even if that upsets the British Medical Association. And I am not opposed to replacing what Tony Blair calls the "monolithic" provision of services; but it is not choice we need, it is democracy, and that is rather different. Equality is much more important than choice, and democracy is the best way to achieve that end. I'm not convinced by talk of consumers and citizens, either; I think we should be talking about people as people who have similar needs. In the long run, reducing inequalities is the best way to deal with problems such as crime and drug abuse.

On foreign affairs, I was very glad to hear the Prime Minister say on Israel that it was essential for peace talks to start again before the end of the year. The situation there is tragic. But I wish he had said something about the American role; after all, as they are Israel's paymasters, it is they who can pressure them to make an agreement.

As to his condemnation of anti-Americanism and his assertion that we share the same values, I think you can disagree with things that the Bush administration does without being anti-American. There are different currents of opinion there; Al Gore, for example, is taking a different line than George Bush on Iraq.

I am sorry, too, that he made no concession to the strong feelings among delegates on Iraq. Big-power bullying in the world is a recipe for disaster. It is clear that the other members of the UN Security Council do not want war, and that Britain and America are trying to exploit Russia's economic weakness to make them support the kind of resolution they want. I want a genuinely democratic UN, not one that is the tool of the United States.

I am glad that Blair talked about his visit to Beira in Mozambique. I share with him his concern about tackling poverty and disease in Africa, and I welcomed his reference to Aids, and I hope the Government will also do something to improve trade terms for developing countries.

I wanted to be reassured by Tony Blair but I'm afraid I wasn't. There is going to be a lot of concern within the party – Conference delegates know people outside the Party share their worries. I would like to think that the Prime Minister took the Party and the Party Conference very seriously; but I don't think that he does.

Christabel Gurney is the chair of the Regents Park and Kensington North Constituency Labour Party

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