Body blow for the Big Society

A major setback has befallen David Cameron’s Big Society. One of the four pilot schemes opened by Cameron as the ‘vanguard of the Big Society’ last autumn has fallen under a barrage of government cuts. Using unaffordable start-up costs as an excuse (although unidentified structural impediments were also mentioned), senior councillors of Labour controlled Liverpool Council have insisted that the scheme be curtailed immediately. Courtesy of Andrew Sparrow, the Liverpool Echo has the story.

To dismiss the council’s decision as politically motivated would be transparent. Naturally, politics lurks behind the scenes; but this is an acute embarrassment for the Prime Minister. Despite a glamorous inauguration and two subsequent re-launches, the Big Society remains unformed. Arraigned against its ill-definition is the opposition’s coherence. The Big Society is simply cover for cuts, they say – and simple arguments are always compelling.

Even the Big Society’s most ardent advocates recognise that they may have to restrain their ambitions, as the government consolidates for its trial of strength in 2011.