Sunday, May 11, 2008

A LEADER THAT LEADS

A LEADER THAT LEADS
A SOLUTION THAT WORKS
CAN WE DO IT HERE?
CAN HE PULL IT OFF THERE?

David Cameron the leader of the Conservative Party in England talking about the change needed in government and how it can happen. He is calling for ending the current top down form of government to a more bottom up driven model. That message is winning over votes in record numbers. Partly for the message and partly for the messenger. In the article below he explains his concept in specific. Using I might add a presumed Liberal cause. Green Transportation. (Brings to mind what Newt Gingrich has been saying about getting into the environmental debate.) He shows how to take the process which hasn’t worked and put it in the hands of locals. Specifically he say take the 100 million promised to the locals with all the strings and limits of use, cut those strings and let the locals figure out what is best for them as they know best. Makes great sense to me.
-----link-----
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=webcameron.story.page&obj_id=143742&speeches=1---------------
We could use a Conservative Council here in West Michigan to come up with solutions to some of our problems and offer them to the governing boards. Anybody think they want to help start one? Kind of what the Neighborhood associations started out to do but turned into the quagmire of groups trying to collect government money basically so they can get a share for themselves.. That may be too cynical. I just know that I will have to check into how the Conservative councils are set up across the pond.
-----In the next speech he set’s out his agenda for change in Health Care. I quote him here.
“The health service needs serious reform. That reform should be steady, purposeful and with a clear direction, avoiding unnecessary upheaval. Changes in lifestyles, in technology and medicine itself, in the expectations people have of the services they receive all this means we need a more decentralised, more patient-centred, less bureaucratic system. And at the same time, if we are to maintain public consent for all the extra spending the NHS receives we have to ensure better value for money than we've had in the past.

But my point is that reform should be bottom-up, not top-down: wherever possible driven by the discretion of professionals responding to the needs and wishes of their patients.

We need to change the essential power relationship in the NHS: from a vertical relationship where professionals are told what to do by politicians and managers above them with patients left just to take what they're given to a horizontal relationship where professionals have the necessary autonomy and discretion to respond to the demands of patients and patients are in the driving seat because they have the ultimate power: the power to choose the service they want.”
------The concept of letting people have the power to determine how to spend the money is “Old School” to conservatives. What is new is that the money comes from the government. The link to that speech is below. He further goes on the explain how this can happen.
-----link-----
http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=webcameron.story.page&obj_id=143765&speeches=1--------------
One recurring theme beside the obvious “bottom up” thing is that the governmental system need not be treated as the bad guy, but as someone who needs help. In other words as a “Constrained” conservative would say. It’s there let’s use it.
This guy is good! I can’t help but quote him. Here he explains why all the constant attempts at reform of the bureaucratic system in the past have failed.
---”It's all the product of Labour's bureaucratic mindset, or what I call policy by PowerPoint: clever flowcharts and organograms which ignore the human relationships that are the most important aspect of healthcare.”
These are the things that people instinctively know in their hearts, what all people realize what used to be called common sense. Any government meeting hall is filled with this type of “Power-Point” presentation. Facts and charts and you name it. Forget about the people.
-----Well enough for now, check out my side bar for more links to his speeches under "Xtra Links for current posts".
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Regards, Live Dangerously Be A Conservative
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PS Just found this link about a local study made up business leaders to make Macomb County more cost effective. The article lends insight into the idea of Bottom Up Govrnment American Style. Not the example of Government not the maker but the facilitator of services.
-----link-----
http://www.mackinac.org/article.aspx?ID=9394--------------
Author Mr. Lawrence W. Reed writting for the Macinac Center, makes some good points.

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