Big Society 'antidote' to big government

Sam Macrory speaks to Bernard Jenkin, whose select committee is embarking on an inquiry into the Big Society.

Two words. Endless headaches. No convincing explanation. The ‘Big Society’ is everywhere, but not in the way David Cameron would like it to be.

The concept was threaded through the Conservatives’ 2010 manifesto, and despite being largely lost on voters – and blamed in part for the Tories’ failure to secure an outright election victory – it remains at the heart of Cameron’s thinking.

However, he has had to fight to explain why. In the last fortnight, a string of negative headlines followed a series of high-profile sceptical outbursts, prompting Labour leader Ed Miliband to seize the opportunity of successfully probing Cameron on the matter at PMQs. The prime minister has responded by declaring that the Big Society is “his mission”, just one part of a series of a concerted offensives by Downing Street to breathe life into the project.

Mission accomplished? Not quite. At PMQs last Wednesday Bernard Jenkin, the Tory backbencher and chairman of the public administration select committee, took the unusual route of using a question to announce his committee’s inquiry into the Big Society.

It met with cheers from Labour and Tory MPs alike, with Cameron’s smile not entirely convincing as he told Jenkin that he was “sure, like everything you do, it will be wholly supportive of the government’s position”.

The timing, however, did not seem very helpful. “It was always our intention to hold an inquiry into the Big Society at some stage,” Jenkin explains to The House Magazine. “Generally I am against ambulance chasing with a select committee, but this debate is now raging and I think we have something to contribute.

Who is going to give us evidence to say the Big Society is a bad thing? Anyone can come forward, and I hope Polly Toynbee, who has been very negative, will submit a memorandum to explain why.”

The committee, Jenkin says, will not be focusing on “defining or redefining the concept” of the Big Society. Instead it will look at “good governance, the process of government, and what government needs to do to make sure this is not just a broad idea but something which actually gives tangible expression as policy”.

Does he approve of the idea? “It’s an inherently good thing, and as a Tory I feel the idea is as old as the hills,” Jenkin replies. “It is an antidote to the old mantra that the government should do something about it. The government can’t fix everything.”

As the inquiry progresses, three groups will be watching with interest. First, Tory backbenchers will want to know how they can sell the Big Society as a positive political message. “It’s not intended to be a political message,” Jenkin argues. “The danger is that the Big Society can be misconstrued as the government washing its hands of things which many people think are core government responsibilities.

I don’t think it is about the government trying to shed responsibility. It is trying to explain the limitations of government and the virtues of personal, family, corporate, and core community responsibility.”Second are those voluntary groups left unsettled by apparent attempts to define their work as political activity.

Here, Jenkin admits that there are concerns. “Voluntary groups are a little worried about being given more responsibility than they are prepared to take. A lot of charities who are making Herculean efforts don’t like being told to make more effort with less money to do it with.” The solution, he believes, is “to separate the Big Society effort from the consequences of spending reductions”.

Third, of course, is Downing Street, and specifically the prime minister. Should he be worried by the inquiry? “Any prime minister will be wary of an independent select committee having a jolly good look at a central government policy, but that’s what accountability is all about,” Jenkins replies with a smile.

While David Cameron might not thank Jenkin for it, perhaps, at last, the inquiry will help him explain what the Big Society really means.

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