Douglas Carswell's Blog

Government without The Plan

There are concerns, writes Sue Cameron, "that nobody in Downing Street seems able to give shape and coherence to policy".

When in opposition, Daniel Hannan and I wrote a book called The Plan, to try to provide precisely the kind of policy coherence needed.

Shortly after The Plan was published, the magpies picked up some of the sparklier parts of it. I couldn't help notice, for example, how David Cameron's Milton Keynes speech on new politics contained some almost identical lines.

I was delighted. Suddenly we were all for dispersing power, radical localism and renewing democracy. Or so it seemed.

But then we entered government - and what was once narrative has not always been implemented as policy.

Simple ideas - proposals to give people the power of recall or Parliament power to oversee government - have been mangled. Or, like open primaries, quietly dropped.

Basic promises, like scrapping local government Standards Boards, have yet to be fulfilled. More complex pledges, like Human Rights reform, remain a distant dream.

Why is this? I wish it was the case, but this blunted radicalism cannot all be pinned on Nick Clegg. Rather it is down to the way MPs are - or are not - involved in the business of government under this administration.

Far from involving many MPs, those elected to Parliament with enthusiasm for these ideas have had almost zero input into policy making. Instead it has been left to a tiny, overstreached, clique of advisers at the top to see it through. Or not, as it often turns out.

Downing Street's policy unit appears to consist not of those elected advocating change, but of civil servants and ex-McKinsey people. Too many policy priorities reflect the outlook and approach of such people.

Instead of a coherent agenda for change, too often we have a smorgasbord.

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