Nick Clegg's clear and compelling speech on public services

Nick Clegg this morning makes a comprehensive, passionate and intellectually robust speech on public services at the party's one day manifesto conference at the London School of Economics. His speech contains a good clear statement about the government's role in public services:

I stand for the following principles: the state must intervene to allocate money on a fair basis in our heath and education systems; to guarantee equality of access in our schools and hospitals; and to oversee core standards and entitlements.

“But once those building blocks are in place, the state must back off and allow the genius of grassroots innovation, diversity and experimentation to take off in providing an array of top class schools and hospitals.

Nick expresses an impatience with low standards in schools and proposes "free schools":

I want us to look at establishing a new liberal model of schools - let us call them Free Schools - that are non-selective, under local government strategic oversight but not run by the council, and free to innovate to drive up standards for all our children.

They could be established by any suitable sponsor, including parents, educational charities, voluntary and private organisations with the right credentials.

Nick explains what the crucial difference is between those "free schools" and Labour's Foundation schools or the Conservatives' Grant maintained schools:

All new schools must also be open to all.

So we must end selection. Pupils and parents should pick schools - not the other way round.

If new schools only improve results by selecting the cleverest pupils, one form of educational segregation will merely be replaced by another.

That is why the Liberal Democrats would remove the powers to select from Academies, Specialist Schools, Trust and Foundation Schools.

With these sound principles of social justice and opportunity for all governing our public services, government, including local government, can move to become a purchaser, not simply a provider.

Let’s look at Academies. There is plenty wrong with the government’s Academies programme - from the selection rules to the absurdity of trying to run schools all over the country at the behest of one Minister in the House of Lords.

But there is nothing wrong at all with allowing schools the freedom to innovate.

Nick emphasises the importance of mental health care:

In particular, these rights are crucial for people with mental health problems. Mental illness affects one in four British families: it can no longer be neglected just because it doesn’t make a good photo opportunity.

Nick lays into David Cameron's Conservatives:

David Cameron hopes to persuade us that his party is changing.

But among the mixed messages and half-promises, it seems to me their instincts on the big issues haven’t changed a bit.

They claim to care about poor families - but their only spending commitment is still a tax cut for the richest people in the country.

They still want to use the tax system to make moral judgements about whether people should get married or not.

They’re still devoted to school selection.

They're still focused on escape routes for the lucky few - not real opportunities for the many. So much for social mobility.

So there’s a gap in politics for a strong, progressive, liberal voice.

Nick makes a challenge to the party:

The big questions now are these: how do we make Britain a fairer place without raising the overall tax burden?

How do we promote real social mobility without relying on the discredited politics of Big Government?

In seeking to make Britain fairer, we need to stop just asking “how much”, and to start thinking hard about “how”.

The full text of Nick's speech is here on the party's website.