Tessa Jowell will ask: how do we strengthen our civil society?
Tom Clark writes:
Every opposition politician from Tony Blair in the mid-90s to David Cameron in the mid-noughties has talked up civil society to give themselves something to say without committing themselves to spending cash. It sounds appealing to strengthen communities, and evidence on so-called social capital suggests robust community ties can indeed make a difference in everything from education to crime. But now the public has heard the Big Society pitch so often without anything much happening, can Labour devise proposals which will cut through the cynicism about the ability of politicians to do anything meaningful in this area?
