The Strong Society

Monday, 26th April 2010

The ideas buried in the Tory manifesto - buried I say because they've not spent nearly enough time explaining them - are good and classically conservative. Family, Community, Country. Those are the pillars. But they've not been able to build upon this good work and instead the "Big Society" has left voters cold and confused. What does it mean?

And that's left the Tories vulnerable. During the second debate Gordon Brown even suggested that the Tories' Big Idea was little more than a kind of "DIY NHS" - a double calumny since the NHS is the one area that the Conservatives have decided to leave well alone. So the idea has been corrupted and people think that they've got to come home from work and then set up a school or something.

That's not how it works. Anyway, Iain Martin has a terrific, must-read post on this making the case that for all his talents Steve Hilton has blundered when it comes to the essential framing of the Tory message. How much more effective would the Tory campaign be if it had been about The Strong Society and not The Big Society?

Put in those terms you can see how it could all make sense and how everything from education policy to welfare reform could have been bundled together in a clear, coherent fashion.

As I say, do read Iain's post. It falls into the I Wish I'd Thought of That category. Damn.

Filed under: Big Society (120 more articles) , Election 2010 (599 more articles) , Steve Hilton (44 more articles) , Tories (273 more articles)

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Noa Zrk

April 26th, 2010 11:04pm Report this comment

Thank you for an interesting post Mr Massie.

So it's crap PR that's been the problem in communicating the Conservative message?

A pity that there are no empathetic PR men in the leadership team.

Beefeater

April 27th, 2010 5:15am Report this comment

How about a Big Strong Society?

Craig Pond

April 27th, 2010 8:42am Report this comment

Why is it you haven't looked in depth at the BNPs manifesto? That is a document with some truly excellent policies that we are trying to push out amongst the public for some honest reaction.
If only the mainstream media knew the meaning of honesty...........

Ben G

April 27th, 2010 9:28am Report this comment

Big Society/Strong Society, it's all fine and dandy, but not at this election.

This election is about fixing the mess Labour have created, fixing the economy, and fixing, as Dave says, "Broken Britain".

But instead of offering voters a way to fix the country, Dave has said, effectively, fix it yourself.

The Big Society idea is the sort of thing parties produce when they disappear up their own backsides, having spent too much time listening to the likes of Philip Blond.