Who says Labour’s social services boss, Peter Hammond, is a useless dithering wimp incapable of taking decisions and going off sick at the first hint of pressure? Not any longer. Because The Blogger learns the tough guy has taken a decision.
Peter has decided that the decision as to whether or not Bristol’s care homes should be shut and the elderly residents shoved into private care should now be delayed.
He was supposed to take the decision in July but now he’s bravely put that back to October, creating more sense of drift in his already cash-strapped social services department.
He hasn’t announced what his position on this privatisation is, so it joins the home care service in a similar limbo of warm words, indecision and serious financial problems.
How much is all this delay costing? And how many more decisions can the ditherer delay?
It joins just about every other serious policy decision in having been kicked into the long grass. Residents’ parking schemes, homecare, changes to the recycling scheme. Considering that Labour actually had some election promises on recycling (to go back to weekly collections, and to collect plastic from the door) they could have implemented them…but I guess they’ve just seen the bill for how much that will cost!