Tories say they favour decentralised decision making except when they see the results

Today’s Times second leader says that two leading Tories “indicated that they favoured decentralisation”. Under the headline “The state they're in” it reports that “During the public services debate yesterday David Willetts, the Shadow Education Secretary, and Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, both criticised the target culture that is associated with the Treasury under the current Chancellor and indicated that they favoured decentralisation with “professional autonomy” for doctors, nurses and teachers.”

Apart from the worry that many doctors, nurses and teachers, who are extremely able at their jobs, couldn’t organise so much as a provincial jumble sale, there are other problems with this worthy notion.

Local decision making will lead to difference in service provision. So one Tory cliché (lets make efficiency saving by sacking all the organisers) gives way to another (the postcode lottery).

Decision making in the NHS is increasingly being devolved to Primary Care Trusts. The Forest of Dean constituency sits on the border between England and Wales. Its Tory MP is jolly cross because those of his constituents who cross the border for their NHS treatment get a different set of service levels to those who stay in Gloucestershire.

Now Mark Harper is perhaps not the sharpest pencil in David Cameron’s gang but we might hope, might we not, that he could get his head around this little conundrum?