Pathfinder Mutuals - more a Chinese lantern than a pyrotechnic spectacle‏

My youngest daughter had a school holiday nightmare sleepover. You know the ones that start off as a couple of friends over for a movie and a sleep and then you end up with half the neighbours kids, with giggles and fights intermittently until four in the morning. This one was more horrendous than most as she insisted that we let off some Chinese lanterns.

Like any responsible parent we gave in after the third request (anything for peace) and despite the less than ideal conditions started to light them. The first two were fine, if a bit boring. The third, caught by the wind, took off unexpectedly only to land a few seconds later in our neighbours tree and promptly set the branches aglow – thankfully ignoring the local hosepipe ban it was quickly extinguished along with any attempts to light the rest!

The reason for telling you this is that there is a bit of an analogy with Maude’s mutuals. Despite the Con Dems big idea that there is an army of public sector workers, all willing to set up mutuals, it has had a less than spectacular start. Only 12 pilots so far.
http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/newsroom/news_releases/2010/100812-pathfinder-mutuals.aspx

A bit of a damp squib really and hardly a cutting edge reform of the public sector. Just a few sad sell-out individuals, clearly more comfortable with knitting yogurt than providing truly accountable public services, have decided to be the leaders of this non-revolution.

It is however a dangerous experiment and the conditions, to allow mutuals to take off in the public sector will frankly never be right. They are not a form of public ownership. They are not publicly accountable and, just like our neighbours tree, there is a strong possibility that the public will get burnt by a foolhardy experiment in social policy.

Let's not make the mistake of soft parenting and say no to this nonsense before it has a chance of taking off and doing real damage.

Anna Rose