Big government or the Big Society? It was a constant theme throughout the election campaign. It was even returned to by that old trooper – Tony Blair – on the eve of polling day.
But what does it all mean? The choice, so the argument goes, is between a centralised state protecting the poor and the weak – or newly empowered active citizens doing it for themselves.
In practice, once the dust has settled and a new administration is installed, the political differences are likely to prove narrower than might appear.
As David Walker argues this week (see cover feature on pages 16–19), the public have been invited to audition for starring roles as ‘civic activists’ – but there is little evidence of keen candidates.
This was true even in the good times. The idea is likely to be still less popular now.
Only one in ten members of the public are interested in electing local functionaries or helping run services. And, according to a recent government survey, even those who do participate do not find it particularly rewarding.
What the British public seems obstinately to want are public services that actually work, run by people paid to do the job.
And here’s the rub. The worst-kept secret in the election campaign was that the public sector recession has barely begun.
The UK has not yet experienced Greek or Irish-style budgetary cuts. But the country is already set on course to strip down services to their frontline core, and dispense with up to half a million public sector jobs.
Their places are not about to be taken by a mums’ or dads’ army of understudies any time soon. We are more likely to see a running down of ‘non-essential’ services, and an accelerating trend towards charging and co-payments.
So where does this leave the public realm? Margaret Thatcher’s small-state view – that ‘there is no such thing as society’ – became deeply unfashionable after a decade of public sector largesse. And its rebranding, in the guise of the Big Society, looks no more credible either.
But with the public finances in disarray, the new government will be in urgent need of a showstopping catchphrase ahead of its first Budget and Spending Review. Perhaps it should be that other old aphorism – ‘there is no alternative’?
Though, as they’re finding out on the streets of Athens, Tina could be a hard sell.
Judy Hirst is the deputy editor of PF
