Cameron's Big Society

Written by David Frum on Monday October 4, 2010

"Big society" was a campaign slogan of David Cameron's, and now that he's prime minister, people naturally wonder: What does it mean?

Click here for all of David Frum's blogposts from the 2010 Conservative Party conference.


"Big society" was a campaign slogan of David Cameron's, and now that he's prime minister, people naturally wonder: What does the slogan mean?

So when Policy Exchange convened a "fringe conference" event to discuss the concept this afternoon, the conference room at a nearby hotel was crammed beyond overflowing. I mean: sitting on the floor overflowing, bodies queued in the hallway outside the conference room overflowing.

Most of the attendees belonged to one form or another of voluntary or charitable group. In the British context that means: they depend utterly on funds from the central government. And they are all (rightly) terrified of what is coming in the next budget statement, to be handed down in barely two weeks' time.

To do them justice, though, discussants and audience talked about bigger questions than: "What about our funding?"

Britain is a country of accumulating social problems, some of them as dramatic as the rise of Islamic extremism and terrorism, some as everyday as the revival of public drunkenness on an 18th century scale.

Central government cannot solve these problems. But it tries - and in trying, it impedes.

An example, discussed today: a local clergyman becomes concerned about under-employed youth in the neighborhood. The clergyman decides to open a youth center, create activities, give the young people something to do. He applies to the local government for money. The local government inserts his application in its next request to the national government. The money flows from Whitehall - more money probably than the clergyman could ever have raised on his own. Great - right? Not right.

Because the money comes with rules attached, so many rules as to destroy the mission of the group. The center must meet health, safety and accessibility standards. It must of course account for the money it receives. The clergyman cannot cope on his own. He hires a full-time coordinator to ensure compliance with the rules. For the coordinator, the project is a job, not a cause. The coordinator works 9-5, 5 days a week, with breaks for holidays. Gradually the organization adapts itself to the coordinator's schedule. A spontaneous initiative has devolved into a government program.

More to come…

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