Reports of the death of the Big Society have been exaggerated. The question is whether it can stay alive.
The Telegraph made a great deal the other day of the fact that the Big Society, David Cameron's 'passion' and philosophical driving force, would not be on the main agenda at the Conservative Party conference. The implication was that, 18 months after the first of its many launches, it had been quietly moored in the backwaters of policy.
The enthusiasm displayed in the early days of the coalition government has certainly waned. The Lib Dems have always been wary of the term and tend to avoid using it. Among the Tories, where at one time every policy initiative or press release was accompanied by fulsome quotes about 'Big Society in action', ministerial cheerleading has become surprisingly muted.
Every now and again the Big Society stages a modest comeback. In June the Department of Communities and Local Government celebrated the achievements of the three 'vanguard' councils (there were four, but we don't talk about Liverpool). These included the first brick being laid in a community-run housing development in Cumbria. There is also a 'citizens' university' in Sutton, south London, and a planned 'CareBank' scheme in Windsor and Maidenhead.
These are all worthwhile, but fall short of local government minister Greg Clark's assertion that the vanguards have 'achieved remarkable results in a year'.
The growing ennui over Big Society within government reflects the mood on the streets, where the term is most often used ironically, except among charities and community groups desperately hoping that adopting the lingo will win them friends in the right places.
But while the Big Society has slipped down the agenda, the 'broken society' and 'sick society' certainly haven't. David Cameron used last month's riots as a platform to set out what is described on the 10 Downing Street website as 'the broken society agenda'.
'Our security fightback must be matched by a social fightback,' the prime minister said. 'Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?'
The problems were defined as 'Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences', which is as precise a description of the behaviour of leading bankers, members of Parliament and media barons in recent years as it is of the actions of street criminals. And there lies the problem for the Big Society.
David Cameron says the reason he is in politics is to build a bigger, stronger society. But you don't build a bigger, stronger society by telling people how sick and broken and useless they are. You are more likely to do it by working with the assets and talents and skills and generosity that exist even in the most struggling communities, and by getting alongside and supporting people. It's a process of working with individuals and groups to give them space to explore and articulate their own ambitions, and the support they need to start making them a reality.
Within the early rhetoric of the Big Society, and in some of the awards for community action handed out by Number 10, there was real respect for ordinary people's achievements and ability to address and change horrendous situations.
That is in danger of being lost and replaced with an approach that uses the language of empowerment but sees the people as the problem. If that persists, there is scant chance of such a poorly parented Big Society surviving beyond infancy.
Follow Julian Dobson on Twitter: www.twitter.com/juliandobson
On the recent death of my colleague, an American without health insurance as so many are, I reveal how the call fell on deaf ears:
After calling on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, chaired in 2008 by Jo Biden, I made the call to Cameron::
http://tinyurl.com/3ehs5mq
Waste our time and our money and we can only realise how little we need you.
Our communities are strong, rugged and resistent
We know, better than you could, what we need
We are responsible for ourselves
We make do and mend when you break everything we care about
Money is not everything but stop taking ours
What we are seeing in these (rural) communities are the sick and malingered values of a greedy culture coming into our communities because "Westminster says....". Maybe this article should have focused more on the destruction of the Big Society (that was existent long before this government) because many Westminster politicians and the associated civil service simply do not understand how healthy communities operate.
We watch you blow hundreds of thousands of pounds trying to solve a problem which a £2000 solution and any local person could have solved. You walk into our communities to peddle your unwanted wares, knowing absolutely nothing about how that community operates. Round here, you can't be local in 35 years, it takes longer. Yet, you oh Big Society Buffoons, think you can walk in and fix a problem that is of your own box ticking making in a few months and with our money.
Think again. The Big Society is only broken in one place - your policy documents.
Here in Cumbria, a very long way from Westminster, we have been solving our own problems (which is all Big Society is) for nigh on a thousand years. Maybe more.
We don't need Government's help or hindrance to do right by our own. We need to be able to get on with it. Too many consultants et al postulate and posture about whether or not Big Society as a policy is working, whilst blowing every penny in the coffers that our communities need so badly.
I would ask you to come here, to Cumbria or similar areas that JFDi, and then, and only then, make a judgement about Big Society's success. And we respectfully request that you put it into context. Hundreds of years worth of context. Whilst leaving our money alone.
So, make sure you come here with an open mind that doesn't only go back to the last election. We have been living FOR GENERATIONS by rules that often seem anathema to that Square Mile in Westminster....