The Big Society Punch-up?
28th Jan 2011
"The nature of a coalition government tends to focus the eye on looking for fault lines (actual or otherwise) between the parties in power and their often antithetical groups of supporters. This has certainly been the case regarding our current Coalition with every policy position and decision, from university tuition fees to terrorist control orders, being talked up as the split which could bring down the government.
What is less observed are the tensions within parties and their wider supporters. Cameron’s relationship with his own backbenchers has been somewhat frosty over the past few months. Barely a week goes by without David Davis, seemingly Tory rebel-in-chief, in the media launching a critique of Coalition policy.
Events this week prove a case in point and, indeed, provide an example which goes to the heart of the Government. There is increasing concern that the Big Society vision, so central to Cameron and modernising Tory supporters such as Phillip Blond at Respublica, will not be realised as charities and other voluntary bodies find themselves starved of cash and unable to undertake their work. Part of the reason behind this is that George Osborne, much more in tune with the Thatcherite wing of the party, has as his primary concern bringing the UK’s public spending under control which has resulted in grants to organisations being slashed.
In this lies potentially one of the key splits within the Government, between those Conservatives seeking to drive through the Big Society agenda and those for whom all else is subsumed by the need to cut the deficit. With the Budget on the horizon, and a Government keen to benefit from some positive news, how much money can go towards supporting the Big Society and how it should be allocated will be one of the central debates within the Government in the weeks ahead."