Big Society – Small State?

by Jules Peck on 27,August, 2010

Countering Margaret Thatcher’s famous declaration, David Cameron has asserted that “there is such a thing as society”. His vision for this society is based on his Big Society programme of “social action, public service reform and community empowerment… a shift from state action to social action”.

His concept of the Big Society makes a distinct break, at least rhetorically, with the individualist neo-liberal model of the Thatcher era. And its success rests, to a large degree, on the abilities and energy of citizens, communities and the third sector. Citizen Renaissance Movements like Transition Towns (of which I am a great fan) would argue that they have been active in building a Big Society for years.

In giving her support to the Transition Towns community initiative, Theresa May MP reinforced the party’s’ appeal to citizen and community-centric values saying “This is an interesting initiative aimed at getting communities to come together to think seriously about how they can at grass roots level plan for the future and start to make the changes that will be needed.” And a good friend of mine, Transition Towns Chairman Peter Lipman, has also met Big Society Network Chairman Lord Wei at his request to discuss how the Government’s policies and rhetoric can support Transition Towns. This is all very positive and I know that many of us involved in Transition are interested to see in what way the new Government are willing to support their work.

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I suspect if you plotted Pol Pot onto the third (International) map here on this Political Compass page he would come somewhere near the top left hand corner. It’s not really clear where Attila the Hun would fit. He was maybe just a fairly average type of blood-thirsty warrior King of his time. I guess in modern parlance though to be ‘like Attila’ means you are aggressive and uncaring, which is quite different to the Blessed Teresa of Calcutta.

Cameron has been called all these things by his own party of late. David Davis said “The corollary of the big society is the small state…if you talk about the small stat people think you are Attila the Hun; if you talk about the big society they think you are Mother Theresa” and Norman Tebbit wondered if Cameron was “the party’s Pol Pot, intent on purging even the memory of Thatcherism, before building a New Modern Compassionate Green Globally Aware party, somewhere on the left side of the middle ground?”

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Big Society, Great Society?

August 6, 2010

Like so many people, I am trying to work out three things.  How progressive is our new Prime Minister? How do his values fit with the (somewhat right) Lib Dems in his Cabinet and what on earth is the Big Society all about? Is it just me who wonders at the coincidence that ‘Big Society’ [...]

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Not quite PR but still worth the fight

May 12, 2010

So the people have spoken. They have told us that ‘none of the above’ had a strong enough narrative to deserve sole power. Have we lost the once in an era chance for real change and transition to grown-up co-operative democracy? The Tories shifted their position on PR considerably. But is it enough? It’s AV [...]

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Democracy rising

April 29, 2010

Labour and the Conservatives are trying to cling on to the sinking ship of two-party politics. They’ve got so used to the Punch and Judy, ya-ya, yo-yo politics that they assumed it would rule for ever. So they are falling over each other to tell us how much we would regret a hung Parliament, despite [...]

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Playing Politics with the Citizen

April 26, 2010

If certain news reports are to be believed, David Cameron might just offer Nick Clegg and the LibDems a ‘deal’ in the event of a hung parliament: they can have Proportional Representation, but just not everywhere. It might be ok for Europe and for local Councils, but of course not for Parliament. To many, this [...]

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Woe to the rich

March 3, 2010

I saw Michael Moore’s Capitalism – a Love Story last night. I liked it. Yes I agree with the many critics that it’s low on solutions and bombastic. But that’s Moore’s style. Its real strength for me was the insight into the lives of disillusioned Americans who bought into a myth of the American Dream.
Any [...]

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Cameron@TED

February 19, 2010

Not to be outdone by the competition, David Cameron has lost his TED-talk virginity (Brown spoke last year). In a speech on his Big Idea of ‘people power’ Cameron seemed to be quoting from Citizen Renaissance saying “It is a post-bureaucratic age and the citizen/consumer is in charge”.
Developing the theme of his Big [...]

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The Rat, the Squirrel and Chimes of Freedom Flashing

February 15, 2010

It has been something of an odd couple of weeks, with some of my professional peers either brazenly speaking of lying (PR Week, February 3rd), or offering somewhat antediluvian points of view about what PR really is and how we go about our everyday business. Having recorded the BBC’s The Bottom Line with the erudite [...]

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Have the wheels come off the green movement?

February 12, 2010

How ironic that the poster-child of the low-carbon tech-future – the Toyota Prius – is being recalled en-masse.
This seems like just one more blow for the green movement after Glacier-gate and the UEA email fiasco. Now we are told that numerous polls are showing a reverse in confidence around climate change science.
This is sending shivers [...]

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