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 rightish) 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' is such a similar name to Liberal Democrat Lyndon Johnson's (and partly JFK's) Great Society program? Coincidence? Indeed Cameron
invoked JFK on launching the Big Society.
And on many other occasions in his progressive past Cameron quoted JFK in suggesting we need to tilt towards a
wellbeing economics. Is this showing how liberal (socially not economically neo-liberally) Cameron is? Is it showing he fancies himself as a bit of a looker and man about town, a JFK of our times? Or does it mean we can hope for true renewal of what it means to be Conservative? And a Compassionate Civic Communitarian Cameroon?
It's certainly the most interesting new narrative to come out of UK politics for a long time. And good for Cameron for keeping going with it despite the fact that it fell flat on voters' doorsteps. We know that Conservatives are not keen on ideology. And indeed the last Conservative ideology almost killed the party. But arguably that was because that ideology (Thatcherite no-society neoliberalism) was not fit for our times. But my hunch is that citizens are thirsty for a new narrative and vision if it's empowering and well communicated enough.
The true nature of the Big Idea – sorry Big Society – is yet to emerge but let's hope David Davis is wrong to be
so cynical.
Since first saying the idea was ‘hollow', the Deputy PM now think's it's the perfect example of the ‘liberal society'. Let's hope it's more liberal on the social side than the economics as it's so far missing any real analysis of the clear failure of free-market neoliberalism. It's also missing the Oakeshottian concept of the role of the ‘ship of state' in intervention to deal with economic ‘maladjustments.'
Currently it suggests far too much assumption that ‘too much Government' is the cause of broken-Britain. It's intellectually poor if it's dogmatically blind to the responsibility of the
Casino-Capitalism religion, laissez-faire economics and badly set-up markets. But I guess it's an idea in the forming.
I suspect a ‘Big Society' will not work without government intervening significantly, if only to undo the problems caused by previous governments. As Will Hutton has said, “the state is not the enemy. Deployed correctly it is our friend. A few Red Tories have got this message.”
Can we expect the Big Society to rise to
the challenges of our times? Let's hope so for all our sakes.