RUSHES: Politics: Labour Party conference: Tony Blair speech

Politics: Labour Party conference: Tony Blair speech; ENGLAND: Sussex: Brighton: INT Tony Blair MP (Prime Minister) speech SOT (part 7 of 12) - Or a patient can't get diagnostic tests done in six months when the technology and the capacity exist to deliver it in days. The wealthy by their wealth can change that in their lives. I want decent hardworking families to have the same power. Every time I've ever introduced a reform in Government, I wish in retrospect I had gone further. Specialist schools, denounced at the time, have performed better than traditional comprehensives. Fact. City Academies are massively over-subscribed. Fact. And the beneficiaries are not fat cats. They are some of the poorest families in the poorest parts of Britain. We only got big falls in waiting times after introducing competition for routine surgery. Fact. That is why the NHS reforms, to break down the old monolith, bring in new providers, allow patients choice, must continue. Money alone won't work. Money and reform will and if we stick with it, by 2008 we will, for the first time in the NHS's history, offer booked appointments at the patient's convenience and a maximum wait of 18 weeks from the GP to the operating theatre with an average wait of 9 weeks. Not the 18 months just to get off the consultants list, we inherited from the Tories but 18 weeks for the whole thing. Now if reform delivers that change for our people, regardless of wealth, tell me how we justify refusing to do it? This autumn, we will publish our Education White Paper. It will open up the system to new providers and new partners, allow greater parental choice, expand Foundation, Academy and extended schools. Again reform, again some of it difficult. But all with one purpose: to let nothing block the way to higher standards, and greater achievement for our children. The greatest injustice I know is when good education is the preserve of the privileged. We are changing that injustice. Yes, we have lif...