Today’s Western Mail reports:
POLITICIANS need to feel comfortable with the much-maligned idea of “postcode lotteries” in public services, Welsh Lib-Dem leader Mike German says today.
The idea is the inevitable consequence of more “localised” education and health provision, he says – ideas that are gaining ground within the party and enthusiastically talked up by new UK leader Nick Clegg.
Follow @libdemvoice.org on Bluesky
Like us on Facebook
Subscribe to our feed
Sign-up for our daily email digest
Why Britain should be wary of Andy Burnham’s Devolution Revolution (Iain Donaldson)
“Build, baby, build” but don’t lower our ambitions on affordability (Victor Chamberlain)
Twenty-six years of evidence on drugs. Twenty-six years of cowardice. (Tanya Park)
Tom Arms’ World Review (Tom Arms)
Observations of an Expat: Gaza (Tom Arms)
The Joy of Six 1540
Are we doing enough to insure against climate change?
Don't mention the Isle of Wight Separatists' 1950s terror campaign
Fergus McClelland was the last illegal major British child actor
Labour and the Liberals in 1924 and today
Family: Scene Through the Eye of a Lens
Brexit: The Uncivil War - the TV drama with Benedict Cumberbatch
A power vacuum?
Tristan Ward 
Peter Martin 
Ellyott 
expats 
David Wright 
4 Comments
The term “Postcode Lottery” is merely a symptom of the sick political system we currently have in Britain.
If we had a real choice for voters – both at election time and in between with decisions made openly and locally – then we would no longer have to worry about a Postcode Lottery – where the winning numbers are chosen by chance or Council Officer, we could have a genuine individual choice.
“Postcode Priorities” should be the Lib Dem term – with public services varied and prioritised to suit local needs.
I heard Paul Burstow say ages ago that “Its not the post code thats the problem , its the lottery. ”
Our line has to be that its not the variations in service that are the problems its the fact you nearly always can’t elect the decsion makers.
German is absolutely right. If we devolve power locally then we get different priorities in localities. As all parties have a commitment to a certain degree of localism we should all lay off the nonsensical “postcode lottery” attack line and indeed correct media muppets who go with it. In most cases.