10 November 2008
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In the modern world there are many challenges that cannot be met by central government acting alone – and to address those challenges effectively, we need to harness the energy and innovation of front-line professionals, local government, citizens and communities.
I'm amazed that he admits government can't do everything. It certainly isn't how he acts. I'm curious about the "front-line professionals" though, does that mean PC Plod, Inspector Knacker and the other jobsworths who obstruct the rest from doing perfectly sensible things (or even silly things that harm no one)?Among my first priorities when I became Prime Minister were the Governance of Britain proposals to enhance the rights of citizens and to make our institutions more accountable. But we need to build on this by empowering communities and citizens and ensuring that power is more fairly distributed across the whole of our society.
Apart from those huge chunks of power he handed over to Brussels that is so that really the UK doesn't have much to say except "Yes Commisioner"Over the last ten years local councils have improved the quality of the services they offer local people, and as a result we have freed them up from central government control, with fewer targets and greater trust.
Brussels on the other hand has not. And while the trust may, possibly, extend to the bureaucratic jobsworths in the councils it doesn't seem to apply to the councilors who are, so far as I can tell, forbidden from voicing an opinion on anything that they happen to be knowledgeable about due to "possible conflicts of interest"Now with this White Paper we want to move to the next stage in that process – enhancing the power of communities and helping people up and down the country to set and meet their own priorities. In this way we strengthen local democracy by increasing participation.
Now that we've cowed local government and turned them into loyal apparatchiks we are now prepared to move on to the next level of indoctrinationThis is not about making people sit in meetings on wet Tuesday nights, it is about helping citizens to get involved when they want to on their own terms – paving the way for a new style of active politics that not only gives people a greater say but ensures that their voices are heard and that their views will make a difference.
As long as these citizens don't encourage rebellion or spread dissent that is. Something tells me that local citizens who voice discontent with the masterplan will continue to be ignored.And it is an agenda for empowerment that reaches right across the board, from supporting people who want to take an active role in their communities to giving them better access to information and the chance to get more involved in key local public services. These themes lie at the heart of our public service reform agenda – the transfer of power both to front-line professionals and to users, who we want to be able to play a far greater role in shaping the services they use.
And what, one wonders, if the users say they don't want these services, or think that maybe they'd like to have rubbich collection every 2-3 days instead of every fortnight?To help achieve those goals, this White Paper sets out concrete proposals for areas where both central and local government can devolve more power to citizens – giving local communities the power to drive real improvements in everything from the way their neighbourhoods are policed to the way that community assets are used. I believe it will help to build the vibrant local democracies on which our society and our public services depend.
Unfortunately the only use of concrete I'd like to see regarding this paper is using it to entomb the authors. How's that Monty Python line go? "Mr RS Gumby is now appearing as a central tunnel suport on the new Victoria line". And talking of how neighbourhoods are policed. Do you think that local communities who think their police force should stop filling in forms in the station and get out on the beat are going to be listened to? Or the ones who think that a Christian Christmas display with, say, shepards, a manger etc. would be a good thing to place in a local "community asset" will be obeyed?My 30 years in politics, as a community activist, councillor, Member of Parliament and Minister have convinced me that there are few issues so complex, few problems so knotty, that they cannot be tackled and solved by the innate common sense and genius of local people. With the right support, guidance and advice, community groups and organisations have a huge, largely latent, capacity for self-government and self-organisation. This should be the hallmark of the modern state: devolved, decentralised, with power diffused throughout our society.
Oddly enough without the government sticking its oar in community groups and organizations demonstrated their ability to self govern and organize for centuries before government got involved. So how about just getting out of the way and seeing if they can do so again?That people should have the maximum influence, control and ownership over the decisions, forces and agencies which shape their lives and environments is the essence of democracy. There are few ideas more powerful, or more challenging. People with power are seldom willing to give it up readily; people without power are seldom content to remain enslaved. We can see this truth being played out with terrible violence in a country such as Zimbabwe.
So clearly we should ignore all those irritating edicts from Brussels conserning the sale of bananas, the use of metric or imperial measures etc. So if, for example, a local community were to decide that really it would prefer to ignore all those stupid waste disposal rules from Brussels and landfill the contents of everyone's bin collected twice a week then would be just fine with you Hazel?Our history is punctuated by great struggles for democracy, from the soldiers who debated with generals at Putney during the English Civil War, to the Rochdale families who took control over the food they bought by creating the first cooperative, from the families who gathered at St Peter’s Field in Manchester to demand parliamentary reform, to the Chartists who marched in their thousands at Kersal Moor in Salford, from the women who chained themselves to railings and went to prison to win the vote, to our grandparents’ generation who defeated fascism.
And the people who can't go for a walk in front of the mother or parliaments these days without PC Plod shouting "Ausweiss bitte!"Ours is a government committed to greater democracy, devolution and control for communities. We want to see stronger local councils, more co-operatives and social enterprises, more people becoming active in their communities as volunteers, advocates, and elected representatives. We want to see public services and public servants in tune with, and accountable to, the people they serve. Democracy is not about a cross in a box every five years, but about a way of life. It should flow around us like oxygen.
Well yes indeed. We'd like to see "public services and public servants in tune with, and accountable to, the people they serve" as well. Problem is that until we're allowed to fire about 50% of their worthless butts they won't actually act that way.We’ve taken some important steps forward in recent years, with devolution for Scotland, Wales and London, reforming the Lords, more investment and powers for local councils, and encouragement for innovative ways to get people involved such as participatory budgeting, citizens’ juries and petitions. But there is so much more to be done.
We're looking at citizens tribunals where they can conduct show trials of the undesirables for exampleThis White Paper takes us further on the journey, but this is not the last word. We are changing here the terms of the debate. We will continue to strive for greater reform, devolution and accountability, because that is what people will increasingly want and demand. And because it is the right thing to do.
But we won't simply remove huge swathes of government though because that would mean people might get the impression that they could survive perfectly well without government. If they ever think that we're out of job and in dnager of swinging from lamposts in a way that the HSE jobsworths would be really upset with even if they weren't swinging next to us.