What’s the big idea?

If you’re not quite sure what the Prime Minister means when he talks about the big society, you’re not alone.

If you’re not quite sure what the Prime Minister means when he talks about the big society, you’re not alone. Before the election, a poll found that most people hadn’t heard of it and only very few who had knew what on earth it meant. Even some Tories deride it as ‘BS’, though Jesse Norman is not one of them.

A former banker and academic, Norman was elected MP for South Herefordshire this year. And, as the author of two serious texts on the future of conservatism, he’s well-placed to clarify what this tricky big society notion is all about.

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Britain is living beyond its means

The story begins at David Cameron’s Hugo Young lecture, delivered last year. This was an event, Norman argues, as seismic as Blair’s Clause 4 moment.