A truly big society

By Tessa Jowell MP

After just over a hundred days of this new coalition government, we should not underestimate the scale or nature of the challenges that we face as a party if we are to return to government at the next election.

We are faced with a confident government, bristling with ideological purpose – determined to undo our legacy at all costs, that seeks to steal our language of fairness, solidarity, responsibility and democracy. That lays claim to our founding values and principles, and presents a distorted version of our vision of society. That cloaks its own regressive actions with borrowed progressive words and limited progressive deeds.

There is no better example of this than in the coalition’s ‘Big Society’ narrative. Based on our founding traditions of collective action and co-operation, and a core part of our mission over the last 13 years, it is a beguiling idea that we should not reject out of principle.

There is, however, a profound difference between our visions of how to make society more powerful. For thirteen years, we used government action to mobilise our traditions of collective action, self-help and co-operation. In contrast, the coalition’s plans for a ‘Big Society’ risk undermining the very infrastructure that gives power to local communities, because of its commitment to accelerated cuts in front line services and its ideological dedication to small government.

Yet it is not enough for us to expose the policy weaknesses of the coalition on the ‘Big Society,’ however serious and profound they may be. To be a credible government in waiting we need to do more than just carp from the sidelines, but clearly set out our own compelling vision for how we build a society built on the inherently human values of mutuality, solidarity and reciprocity.

Creating a real ‘big society’ is not just about what we do with our public services, however important, but about changing the nature of power and forging new bonds across our economy as well.

Because, whatever David Cameron would have you believe, the origins of the financial crisis and our subsequent economic difficulties did not arise as a result of the size of the state. Nor can our present economic difficulties be merely explained by a misunderstanding of risk, under regulation or the greed of a small number of individuals, however important these were.

They were also about a corporate culture that was too focused on short term enrichment.

Where there was a lack of accountability between firms, their customers, and their ultimate owners.

Where businesses were too often run in the interests of the very few – and left the many to pay the price of their short term judgement and errors.

So the creation of a truly ‘big society,’ requires us not just to rethink the relationship between the individual and the state, but our relationship with business as well. A society in which our principles of mutualism, self-help and collective action not only form the way that we organise our public services but also the way that we do business.

Clearly part of our new vision has to be for us to support the creation of a larger co-operative and mutual sector in our economy. But this must also be accompanied by a fundamental change in the corporate culture that underpins many of our largest businesses.

A corporate culture that is as much about values as it is about outputs. That cares about its customers’ experiences as much as their wallets. And that devotes the same attention to cutting emissions as it does to cutting costs.

In short, a corporate culture that seeks to act in all of our interests – as employees, customers, investors and members of the society that we live in. A fundamental change in the way that we do business – based on the co-operative values that we can see thriving across the breadth and depth of the country.

You can read Tessa Jowell’s speech to Co-op party conference here.