I have always believed that 'The Big Society' (TBS), far from being wooly waffle, is an essential part of Conservatism. As I wrote in a previous blog, TBS has three central components: It says that social capital is as important as economic capital; that people power is as important as state power and; that social entrepreneurs are as important as economic entrepreneurs.
Despite the inevitable old left dinosaurs, and the resurgence of the centralising tendencies of the Labour Party, some Blairite politicians recognise the importance of the Big Society, and understand the central tenets: Mr D Milliband called it the 'Good Society', Peter Mandelson recognised its power shifts, and now Hazel Blears, former Communities Secretary, described the Big Society at a Labour conference fringe:
" I believe that the principles of the Big Society have been appropriated by the Conservatives - and to a lesser extent the Lib Dems - because David Cameron and Steve Hilton recognise that these are very powerful ideas…people don't want a monolithic state…My concern now is that the government is losing its nerve. The "Big Society" has ground to a halt…It's had three of four re-launches and I don't think it can recover. I could say that this is a success for my party, which has opposed the Big Society, but I fear that we may now lose these ideas permanently, and they are essential to the future of our democracy…There is a chance that we may reclaim this area…if we overcome the Fabian element within the party."
It is vital that our party, and Government, does not allow the concept of the Big Society to drift. If anything, we should be spending more effort on promoting the Big Society - particularly in communicating it in a simple language, so that it moves from becoming an intellectual term, to a popular one.
You can read more detail of this here, in The Spectator.
by Robert Halfon - www.roberthalfon.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment