Cameron’s big society, still not sure what it is…

I was listening to a BBC podcast today and they had an excerpt from Thatcher’s 1980 Conference speech, the rather influential “this lady is not for turning” speech.

Here we are thirty years later and last month was David Cameron’s first Tory conference as PM and the most significant theme of his election campaign was carried through to the conference. Big Society and what it means. I’m not a natural Tory and did not vote for them last spring.

It’s difficult to imagine Thatcher using the same words and discussing “new politics” while telling her base that’s she is cutting child benefits for the middle class. The PM said “I know how anxious people are. I wish there was an easier way, but I have to tell you there is no other responsible way.” His first speech as PM was not rewarded with cheers and endless ovations.

I think most people understand what Cameron is talking about in his “big society”, getting rid of the huge central bureaucracy put in place by Labour over the last 13 years and giving power to local authorities and empowering local people to run things as they see fit.

Cameron did not face his critics during his speech, the child benefit cuts are seen as exactly what they are, an attack on the middle classes. The PM and the senior members of the coalition, to a certain extent have to sell the British people the financial pain, hundreds of thousands of public job losses and shrinking public services are going to be worth it. We understand there is little choice, that the road of the last few years is unsustainable and get the doom and gloom both the current and previous governments were very vocal about.

It’s not so much the elimination of child benefit that’s important, it’s that the chancellor announced it at the party conference. He was letting the public know that the conservative base that gave Cameron and the Tories Number 10, will be suffering alongside the rest of us.

The spending review cut some 80 billion pounds of spending, hundreds of thousands of jobs, and at the party conference a few weeks ago the PM and chancellor made it clear everyone is going to take some of the pain. In theory the austerity that is going to go along with the reduction of the bloated, centralized government that emerged during the good times under Blair has been applauded by most. However this was the first contact the Troy faithful have had, and like everyone else, they don’t like it

He said most of the right things, content was fine, but the delivery poor. He lacked the humanity, the down to earthness that he was known for on the opposition benches. Critics have been very vocal about Cameron and Osborne not understanding the British middle class. They come from a place of privilege and don’t get the aspirations people have to move forward.

The main point of Cameron’s speech was his much talked about his vision of “Big Society”.

‘Let’s pull together,’ he said. ‘Let’s work together in the national interest_… The Big Society needs you to give it life… More power to local government and your neighborhood and you… It is a revolution. We are the radicals now.’

All very noble and rather compelling TV in the moment, but I think most people are pretty apathetic about the whole idea. No one has shown how it will help them day-to-day. It’s just politics as usual. Snow, North Korea and England’s performance are far more pressing to most.

There was nothing in the speech to make the electorate sit up and think “he may be onto something here…” The cynical see it as a distraction from the theme of cuts, cuts and more cuts.

You know there is discontent in the party when the leader that gave them government after 13 years in opposition is compared to Thatcher, and the Tory right are not happy. They feel Cameron is making a critical mistake by hitting the people who voted for him. They say (rightly, BTW) Margaret Thatcher would never have done that. Like Blair, she always looked after the people that put her there.