Douglas Carswell's Blog

What to think about the Big Society?

Could it be that the Big Society is to David Cameron’s Conservative what the Selsdon agenda was to Ted Heath’s Tories? 

Both promised to decentralise power – over politics and public services in the case of the Big Society, over the economy in the case of Selsdon. 

Yet neither was thought through, leaving both vulnerable to u-turns and to being hijacked by the vested interests in Whitehall.  Heath's great policy gurus turned out to be in quite a muddle.  It was those outside the inner circle who had the greatest clarity of thought. 

Perhaps both reformist agendas could be seen as precursors to the real radicalism needed?

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