The Spectator’s Notes | 17 April 2010

Since I so much agree with the Big Society which David Cameron wants to create rather than the big state which we have got, I should like to enthuse about the Tory manifesto which makes this the central theme. But there is a problem. The document does not really speak to us, the voters. True, it offers us on its front page an ‘invitation to join the government of Britain’. But haven’t we got enough on our plates without having to do politicians’ job for them? We pay them half our income, and still they want more from us! The manifesto does not start from the viewpoint of particular people — first-time voters, pensioners, parents, taxpayers or whoever — and look at the world as they do. Take, for example, the ‘eight clear and transparent benchmarks’ to judge the economic success of the next Conservative government: none even mentions personal taxation. The manifesto enunciates an overall theory, with examples.