23 February 2001
Delivering the keynote speech to Labour's spring conference in Glasgow, Blair said driving up standards in education and health care could not be achieved simply by ploughing in more money.
'We must be not just the defenders but the reformers of public services. Money alone won't transform them,' he told the assembled party activists. 'There must be fundamental reform of the way staff work, the way they are rewarded and the way the service is delivered.'
In a thinly veiled attack on the Conservative party, the prime minister also warned that if public sector workers did not commit themselves to major changes then the long-term survival of the services they provide would be threatened.
'If we who believe in public services do not reform them so they offer not the basics but excellence, then those who don't believe in them will use their shortcomings to destroy them altogether,' he said.
PFfeb2001
