Finding a narrative of hope

In these grim dark days of austerity and cuts, the coalition urgently needs to find a compelling political narrative of hope and optimism. David Cameron’s Big Society rhetoric occasionally threatens to contain some philosophical depth, but suffers from the same problem as most new fangled analyses of the world. Namely, it is so fluffy that it becomes bewildering.
 
To the government’s credit, they have managed to prepare the public for the upcoming belt tightening. This achievement is all the more remarkable given the woeful refusal of either coalition party to admit the scale of the fiscal problem facing Britain during the general election campaign.
 
But softening up public opinion for wide ranging cuts is only a short term tactic, however necessary. To hold itself together through the choppy waters ahead, the coalition needs to paint a rosier picture of the future. They shouldn’t be cutting back the state because they have to, but because they want to.