Will Clegg’s caution turn Cameron’s big bang reforms for public services into a damp squib?

David Cameron’s piece on opening up public services today is, as Ben Brogan notes, one of the most important moments of Cameron’s premiership so far. First, it is, as I discussed last week (subscribers here), part of a concerted attempt to get the Big Society back to its original meaning, that public services do not need to be provided by the state. As Cameron writes, “our plans to devolve power from Whitehall, and to modernise public services, are more significant aspects of our Big Society agenda than the work we’re doing to boost social action.”

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Alexander Larman

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Next, the ideas in this piece are the central thread that runs through the public service reforms the coalition is pushing through. Cameron says that outside the security services and law and order, public services “should be open to diversity; open to everyone who gets and values the importance of our public service ethos.