Douglas Carswell's Blog

Cameron must hand power to the people before it's too late

I've a joint article with Daniel Hannan in today's Telegraph which you can read in full here.

It looks at how localism became a key part of the Tory modernisers agenda - and examines how successful the Coalition has been at achieving the "radical devolution of power" it promised. 

Progress has been patchy.  While local people are being given greater control over some public services, plans to open up our closed-shop system of politics to local people have been quietly dropped.

"The Coalition is not the first centre-Right government to enter office promising to give power away. Back in the early 1970s, Ted Heath was elected offering to disperse control over the economy. Because of what came next, it is easy today to forget the radicalism of his so-called Selsdon agenda, which promised to set the market free. Yet, in office, without knowing how to make it happen, Heath soon lost his way. Buffeted by events, he U-turned, and ended up centralising control over the economy. It was left to the grocer’s daughter to deliver what the grocer had promised."

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