Big Society

[4] The Big Society influenced the 2010 UK Conservative Party general election manifesto and the legislative programme of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement.

[citation needed] Four initial "vanguard areas" were selected: In March 2010, The Daily Telegraph wrote: "We demand vision from our would-be leaders, and here is one who offers a big one, of a society rebuilt from the ground up".

[39] Anna Coote, head of Social Policy at the independent think-tank NEF, wrote in July 2010 that "If the state is pruned so drastically ... the effect will be a more troubled and diminished society, not a bigger one".

[41] TUC general secretary Brendan Barber concluded that "the logic of this is that [Cameron's] ideal society is Somalia where the state barely exists".

[29] The Daily Telegraph's Ed West predicted in 2010 that "The Big Society can never take off", placing the blame on the socialist ideology held by some of the British public.

[46] Steven Kettell of the University of Warwick has written of the intrinsic "problems surrounding the government's call to put religious groups at the centre of the Big Society agenda".

[47] In April 2012, criticisms were raised concerning the shortage of Big Society policies across Government, such as the lack of employee-owned mutuals and social enterprises in public sector reforms as well as the introduction of a cap on tax relief for charitable giving in the 2012 Budget.

[49] In 2014, former Cameron aide Danny Kruger said that although the relevant legislation had been put in place, the policy had been downgraded from its original role due to a lack of leadership.

[50] Cameron responded that the public sector had already failed to prevent the poorest parts of the country becoming so, and that there were examples of the Big Society having been effective in poor areas.

[54] The proposal appeared in the Party's manifesto, along with a guarantee of a place on the National Citizen Service for all children and an increase the use of social impact bonds.

[55] However, the Big Society did not form a significant part of the Conservative Party's election strategy, being replaced instead by an emphasis on economic stability and border controls.