The Big Society needs to get its priorities in order

By Matthew Zarb-Cousin

The Big Society is a really good idea. There, I’ve said it. But that doesn’t mean the Conservative-led government will implement it properly. Allow me to explain their interpretation, and how the Labour Party can seize on Philip Blond’s ideological construct.

It is based on redressing the unequal distribution of power in our society, both in terms of the state and in the corporate sector. Blond stated in an interview with Canada’s Globe and Mail:

“Free-market neoliberalism has created a tiny elite and turned the working class into losers with no power to control their lives – what they call the free market is actually covert capture by monopolies. Monopoly capitalism has atomized us into a society of lonely consumers isolated from a big, monolithic, uncaring state.”

He would find some consensus with contemporary economists such as Chang and Kaletsky with his assertion that there is no “free-market” anymore, with echoes of Vince Cable’s speech to Liberal Democrat Party conference last year when he said that “capitalism kills competition”. What Blond advocated in his book Red Tory is not too dissimilar from Will Hutton’s vision of stakeholder capitalism, outlined in The State We’re In. The Big Society is a concept based on Blond’s political theory, but Blond himself has voiced his opposition to George Osborne’s deficit reduction. In a comment on a ResPublica article “Why Cameron shouldn’t lurch to the right”, he suggested the following:

“Of course the deficit must be cut and of course we must cut public spending – the point is when and how.”

“What we need is smart and clever cuts that bring in the Tories social agenda – why not for example give people control of what needs to be cut and where – let’s democratise the deficit and put people in control of the services they need.”

This is Cameron’s ideologue toeing Labour’s line on the economy.

David Cameron has attracted criticism from Blond, as his drive for austerity has seen public services such as libraries – which Blond envisaged the people would have a stake in – potentially close down, and comments from Dame Elisabeth Hoodless leave question marks over its viability when funding for services is being cut to the extent that it is.

All of this comes before we get onto Cameron’s feeble attempt to reform the private sector. Whilst Blond talks about the threat of corporatocracy, Osborne cuts corporation tax for large firms. Meanwhile Jeremy Hunt has given Murdoch more time before his case is put to the Competition Commission over the potential BSkyB takeover.

Whilst David Cameron talks about mutualising a summer fete, the structure of the financial sector remains the same. Labour should position itself as pro-Big Society, anti-Conservative Party version of the Big Society. If anyone can ruin a good idea, it’s the Tories.

Matthew blogs about the Conservative-led government’s approach to implementing Blond’s ideas at http://www.bigsocietyfailblog.com