Conservative Conference – David Cameron’s Speech and the Big Society

Today I just went for DC’s speech.

I really don’t get why people think the Big Society is an obscure concept, it’s pretty fricking simple.  You, as a member of society, of your community, your local area, should take responsibility for it as far as possible, and not expect the government to do everything.

So that great project in your community – go and lead it.

The waste in government – go and find it.

The new school in your neighbourhood – go and demand it.

The beat meeting on your street – sign up.

The neighbourhood group – join up.

That business you always dreamed of – start up.

When we say “we are all in this together”, that is not a cry for help but a call to arms.

Society is not a spectator sport. This is your country. It’s time to believe it. It’s time to step up and own it.

I get the feeling that some people have wilfully refused to understand this very simple concept for some time now, because it suits them to portray it as a muddle that doesn’t really mean anything.  Perhaps such people have something to lose from it? The only losers would be those who are used to wielding their little bit of state power.

The considered left-wing alternative

Forsooth, I have seen the error of my ways.  For years I was labouring under the illusion that my centre-right / vaguely libertarian views where not only perfectly valid views to hold (even if you disagree with them), but that I was entitled to hold them and that it did not reflect my status as a human being.

Alas I was wrong.  The scales have lifted from my eyes, and I now see myself for what I am, as kindly pointed out by a passing leftie no doubt anxious to help.  All these years I have been:

But the assistance from my new socialist/anarchist colleagues goes further.  Not content to merely disabuse me of my wrong-headed notions, they have kindly pointed me in the direction we as a nation should be pursuing:

Comrades, this is the way forward.  Not only is offensive daubing on walls undoubtedly the way to win the intellectual battles ahead; but the freshness, the newness of these previously unheard-of catchy slogans that neatly encapsulate the complexity and thoroughness of the ideas they represent is truly impressive.

Conservative Conference – Tuesday

I spent all my time at the Freedom Zone today:

Local Authority chief executive performance-related pay should be incentivised to reward cutting council tax.

If you have Stalinist power structures, you should use them.

Councils should do what they are good at, like sweeping streets; not what other people are better at, like running art galleries.

We need an In/Out referendum on the EU.

Elections in the 19th century were often fought on foreign policy, whereas now the FCO always gets its own way irrespective of who is in power.

Eurosceptics bore people, and this is the EU’s secret weapon.

Supermarkets sell portions that are too large.

Energy prices could double by 2020 due to climate change policies.

If you grow biofuels, it will inevitably either displace food crops or wilderness.biodiversity.

Scotland used counter terrorism stop-and-search powers 15 times in the same period of time that England used them 150,000 times.

All 5 people that were incarcerated for the full 28 days were released without charge or found to be innocent.

Individuals have a conscience, bureaucracies do not.

Saying “You can’t say that” is the first step to saying “You can’t think that”.

Conservative Conference – Monday

More disconnected observations from Your Correspondent:

There are plans afoot for local carbon budgets – I really don’t like this.  There are also plans afoot to allow Local Authorities to sell back renewably generated energy to the grid.  I do like this.  Birmingham (council, residents, and businesses combined), spends £1.6 bn on energy (I wrote down “energy” – I don’t know if this should read “electricity”).

Boris Johnson feared for the entente cordiale when he started crowing about how far more bikes in the Parisian bike hire scheme got nicked than in London’s scheme.

There aren’t enough small to medium energy companies in the market to allow innovation to develop.  ”Energy services” may be the way forward, where you pay for warmth for example, rather than gas to heat your home – that way firms would have an incentive to create more efficient services.

All university student unions should disaffiliate from the NUS because it is a fetid breeding ground of hard-leftists creaming off money from student services to fund their own campaigns which have no relevance to the great mass of students.

Damian Green considered getting the bill that scrapped ID cards through more like recreation than actual work, so happy was he to do it.

There are too many door-based euphemisms (in/out, entry/exit) about the UK’s relationship with the EU.

The price of data confidentiality is that you have to fill in loads of forms with the same information because the information hasn’t been shared.

Conservative Conference – Sunday

So, I’m attending my first Conservative Party Conference. I was going to blog extensively on proceedings but that won’t be happening now, so instead here are some of my observations in chronological but not logical order; some of which I will expand upon at a later date.

From the talk on global population I learnt that fertility is dropping sharply nearly everywhere except Africa; and that concern around population levels seems to see people as exclusively a burden, and implicitly not a generator of wealth, value and ideas that benefit us all.

I have a crush on Sayeeda Warsi, the party co-chairman; and that whilst she isn’t a great orator as such; she speaks with a wonderful rhythm, almost like a poem – Da-dadada-da, Da-dadada-da. It works.

Francis Maude tells us that data from FoI requests are frequently supplied in a format that (intentionally?) obstructs analysis and that this is going to change.

Eric Pickles is the dude.

Greg Clark talks a lot about Vanguards and Barrier Busters – I’ll explain that one another time.

The (Swedish?) foreign minister, on the panel on a debate about Europe, dissed and dismissed a guy in the front row who thoroughly deserved it after an ill-advised heckle; said minister earned a round of applause.

Euro-zealots find Dan Hannan really annoying, despite the self-evident truth that he is a God that walks among us.

You should find out what a free cocktail is before you drink it.