What a pleasure it was. Last night, I spent forty minutes in Westminster Great Hall
– one of London’s few remaining Romanesque buildings, the largest single vaulted wooden ceiling in the world and the judicial setting for the trial of Charles I. Why was I there?
Another failure of the big society, of course.
I had booked to attend a debate between the think tanks, Res Publica and Progress. Phillip Blond and Francis Maude were talking up the merits of the Big Society or big society (it wasn’t clear which); whilst Tessa Jowell and Stephen Twigg were speaking for the Good Society.
I wanted to hear the debate, intrigued to see if any of the speakers could define its terms. Trouble was that I wasn’t alone. A big society of likeminded people congregated outside the Grand Committee Room, which lies off the Great Hall, at the appointed time.
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