Where there's a will there's a way

The tradition of free speech and individuality is being eroded in this country by the legislation passed and political and social culture arising out of the activities of "New" Labour, in thrall as they are to wealth and wealth acquisition; keeping their activities hidden beneath a veil of rhetoric and simplistic 'big ideas'. I thought about this after listening to a programme about Karl Popper in which his idea of the open society was discussed. When the principles of this (primarily an openness to scrutiny and criticism of policy and continual adjustment of policy based on these criticisms) are compared with "New" Labour we see a consolidation of individual power and a seeming inability or at least unwillingness to learn from mistakes or rectify those already made. Instead the same paths are followed despite their problems and figures are massaged to make them appear effective. Examples of this are the use of PFIs to keep spiralling costs of building new hospitals, schools and other public buildings "off balance sheet", the limitations with regards cost and access imposed on the only recently introduced Freedom of Information Act and the awarding of more rail franchises to companies such as First Group that have already proven themselves to have a poor track record with their initially awarded contracts.