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Thursday Jan 18, 2007
Starz in her eyes
Under David Cameron's leadership there seem to be three essential requirements for a speech by a leading Conservative politician. First, you must reverse traditional ideas about what the party stands for.
Cheryl Gillan, Shadow Secretary of State for Wales, did that this week with a speech to The Centre For Policy Studies. The thrust of her argument, was that Blair and Brown had created a selfish society. Margaret Thatcher, by contrast, knew "that economic freedom needs to be underpinned by a strong society, by mutual understandings and obligations".
Full marks for chutzpah.
The second requirement for a Tory is to come up with an eye-catching policy idea. Cheryl Gillan's was certainly innovative.
"...on behalf of David Cameron and the Shadow Cabinet, I am today submitting a policy proposal to Iain Duncan Smith and the Social Justice Policy Group. We would like Iain and his colleagues to investigate the idea of Volunteering Vouchers - taxpayers money which you can "earn" for the charity of your choice by volunteering for it. This would not represent an increase in spending, but a reallocation of existing funding. Rather than the state controlling this money, we believe that individuals and communities could be in charge of it."
Vouchers are a favourite cause of economic liberals, especially in education, but as Volunteering England have been quick to point out, the idea of money following volunteers is surely flawed.
Linking funding to volunteer numbers reflects a deep misunderstanding of volunteering and the voluntary sector. The number of volunteers an organisation involves is in no way a reflection of the worth of an organisation. Some organisations need to involve a large number of volunteers to carry out their work. Others very few. There is no logical reason for the latter to be punished by reduced funding. The same applies with roles that are by their nature harder to fill. Some roles, client groups or causes are always likely to be more challenging or less fashionable than others.
Never mind. At least Cheryl Gillan remembered the third requirement for a Conservative speech (or one by any politician, in fact): the awkward reference to popular culture.
There's a song in the charts at the moment by the singer Just Jack. It's called Starz in their Eyes - and it's a savage attack on the cult of celebrity, and the cynicism of a media which makes money out of the gullible dreams of the young.
The Arctic Monkeys are so last year.
Posted by Tom Green ( 10:19 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]