Cameron launches Conservative Party’s ‘big society’ initiative
Prime Minister David Cameron has discussed new proposals which would help bring to fruition his plans to create a ’big society’ that would give more power to local communities.
At a speech in Liverpool on July 19th, Cameron will announce his aims to put forth policies which would reduce the role of the government in public services and invest greater power to local groups and communities. Efforts would include promoting volunteers to run museums and allowing local residents to have a greater say over their council’s budget spending. Community projects run by volunteers would be given extra help by the government but power would rest solely with local groups, in a bid to redistribute power from the state to the individual.
James Landale, the deputy political editor for the BBC explained that the idea of more ’local'power in areas such as public services gives individuals better control over their lives and helps people to run services which would otherwise be poorly managed by the state, for example people would have more of a role in decideding what goes on in the NHS, and where teaching assistant jobs are allocated to. The Prime Minister is expected to confirm the coalition’s fans to use money from dormant bank accounts to fund volunteer groups, social enterprises and charities who would be in charge of running the country’s public services. In an effort to boost motivation, the Prime Minister hopes that several hundred million pounds will become available to help ’kickstart'the plans. Back in May the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed with Mr Cameron on the need for ’people power'to play a central role in government.
Community projects will be assigned an expert organiser and a civil servant who will see that each initiative gets off to ’a flying start’. Among other plans are the proposals to give people a right to veto any rises in council tax and to create a new National Citizenship Service, aimed at 16 year olds. The ’big society'slogan was a popular campaign theme during the Tory election campaign. It is reminiscent of Thatcher’s well-known slogan ’think not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country'during the 1980s and is one of the defining ideologies of the Conservative Party. Meanwhile, the Labour Party have warned that the new plans are a ‘dumbing down’ on state public services and could soon lead to a ’do-it-yourself society
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