"Our alternative to big government is not no government," he said. "Our alternative to big government is the big society, but we understand that the big society is not just going to spring to life on its own – we need strong and concerted government action to make it happen. We need to use the state to remake society."Mmm ... I think we've heard this before. We heard it from Thatcher, from Major, from Hague, Smith and Howard. Key words to look out for are 'responsibility', 'civic duty' and 'state intervention'. What is missing is the admission that should we accept the 'atomisation' theory, the key culprit has to be the major market reforms and privatisation of life in the UK in the 1980's. Hence Steve Bell's cartoon above illustrating Cameron's ideas and ideology as transparent and lacking any substance whatsoever. Watch out UK, a shift to the right is on its way.
Cameron argued that Labour's efforts to help the poor have led to an "atomisation" of society, breaking down natural bonds of duty and responsibility between individuals and replacing them with a reliance on the state.
Rather than encouraging social solidarity, Labour's state intervention had "squeezed out ... human kindness, generosity and imagination" and promoted selfishness and individualism. "The result is that today, the character of our society – and indeed the character of some people themselves, as actors in society – is changing," Cameron said.
"There is less expectation to take responsibility: to work, to stand by the mother of your child, to achieve, to engage with your local community, to keep your neighbourhood clean, to respect other people and their property, to use your own discretion and judgment. "Why? Because today the state is ever-present, either doing it for you, or telling you how to do it, or making sure you're doing it their way."
He also said that "this is where the moral failure of the big government approach is most evident".
Cameron said that instead of big government, his Conservatives want a 'big society' in which civic responsibility and duty are central. The state would not simply step back; it would play an active role in "remaking society".
Note: The British political spectrum shifted wholesale to the right during the 1980's and early 1990's. New Labour won in 1997 because it too shifted to the right to capture the new middle ground using 'big tent' rhetoric very similar to Cameron's 'new' big society formulation.
