The Big Society

I struggle with this. In the election people did not connect with it. Now it has moved from a hustings aspiration to a trial run in in five areas. Having heard Cameron’s speech I begin to see a little more clearly what he is talking about and what his vision is. I am not sure whether it will work, especially as the details do seem rather airy fairy, but I share the ideal to localise and empower. I have always thought the huge local government re-organsiation of the Heath administration was a disaster, with the creation of bigger local authorities and vanishing counties. These old boundaries were not based on maps and populations, but on centuries of shared interests, heritage and yes, the buzz word of today, communities.

If it is the Government’s plan to re-empower the very local communities and social networks which its Tory predecessor unraveled in the 1970’s, then this is a good thing. It will be cheaper too. I think the word I do not like is BIG. Big is bad now. Big deficits. Big debts. Big cuts. Also B is bad as in Banks. It is a rather early for a re-naming when not yet off the ground but something friendly and inviting would explain it better and be more welcoming. To many, replacing Big Government with a  Big Society sounds too much like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. The Big Society sounds ghastly anyway, which is why it did not play on the doorstep.