Leading Article: Major fails to reinvent Toryism

LAST night, John Major made it clear that he is at last beginning to take seriously the threat from Tony Blair. But it was the fact that he made a speech, rather than what he said, that mattered; for the Prime Minister's comments to the European Policy Forum contained little that was new, and too much that was evidence of earlier mistakes and policy failures.

His pensions proposal was strikingly similar to ideas he rejected when the matter was his own ministerial responsibility. His promise to 'take an axe' to NHS management was a remedy to a malaise of his own making. And he was unwise to base a claim to radicalism on his support for the sale of 51 per cent of the Post Office, given that he is now known to have been urged by his ministers to go for a more sweeping privatisation. Worse, the speech muddled the level of taxes with the efficiency of administration. A small government that raises few taxes and offers few services need not be good; a big government that is more efficient need not be bad.

Mr Major was on stronger ground when he focused on making government more efficient - and offered a list of five principles that can deliver more bang for the taxpayer's buck: privatisation; use of private capital; competition and choice; devolved bureaucratic power; and accountability. Yet the Tories can claim a head start on only the first and third of these.

Mr Major and his predecessors have been slow to devolve power, and cautious in excluding private capital from public services. Their record on accountability is lamentable - particularly their blind opposition to a Freedom of Information Act. Parties of the left, notably in the US and New Zealand, have better records on the broad issues of reinventing government.

The hope for Mr Major is that for all Mr Blair's fine words, Labour will find it harder to embrace the reform of the public sector than its overseas counterparts. Change is unsettling; and those who must be unsettled if Britain's schools, hospitals and other public services are to improve are more likely to be Labour than Tory voters. If Labour shrinks from tough decisions, the public will suffer as well as Mr Blair. If it dares to take Mr Major's message to heart, governmental reform will become an established fact beyond party politics, to the benefit of the whole country.