I have finally seen how the Big Society might work

Like many members of the Tory tribe, I’ve struggled with the Big Society doctrine. As with the doctrine of the Holy Trinity there have been moments when I thought I’d grasped it, but upon being asked to explain it to somebody else, found that it had given me the slip again. After an impassioned Cameron interview I’ve been enthused — but then, challenged to justify my enthusiasm to a sceptic, faltered.

Unlike the doctrine of the Trinity, the Big Society philosophy is not arcane. It’s a homely pudding made of voluntarism, local knowledge, local democracy, self-help, civicmindedness, community spirit — and a dash of strawberry jam (homemade) thrown in. But there’s a theme to this pudding: that we take responsibility for ourselves and for the people around us and the places where we live. It’s what I was brought up to believe.

No, my difficulty is not with the idea, but the extent of its possible application in a 21st-century, hi-tech, IT-savvy and super-mobile modern society in which the moment you try to organise anything involving other people you run into problems with health and safety, child protection, nationwide standards, insurance and employers’ liability.