From the vaults

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The Conservatives should take heed. This month 30 years ago, the general secretary of the then National Union of Public Employees made a strong plea for money to be pumped into public services rather being spent on facilitating tax cuts. We can guess where he would have told George Osborne to shove his inheritance tax proposals announced at the Tory Party conference.
In October 1977, the then director of mental health charity Mind Tony Smythe suggested that every MP should mark mental health week with a visit to their local mental health hospital. Many would say his point is just as valid today. With Parliament conveniently re-opening the day after World Mental Health Day this year, I wonder how many MPs used their last day off to visit mental health services in their area?
The new wider remits of today's breed of adults' social services directors would have been scoffed at by their counterparts 30 years ago if the reaction to proposals for one London director to take on responsibility for car parks and refuse collection at his council is anything to go by. Kingston's social services director described the plan as "absurd" - a sentiment one imagines he might have echoed had he been asked to take on swimming pools, adult learning or culture.