The Waugh Room

Monday 14th February 2011 | 11:28

The Big Society, Harry Hill style

David Cameron will be pleased with today's 'relaunch' of his flagship Big Society policy.

Looking for all the world like a Cameron Direct event, he was as smooth and accomplished as ever at dealing with the Q&A setting.

What jumped out was no so much his vigorous defence of the BS, but actually how he used "duty" and "responsibility" to tie it to the central mission of the Coalition: cutting the deficit. Social recovery and economic recovery were linked themes, he said.

When asked for his message to those of his colleagues who think he should spend less time talking about his pet project, the PM replied:

"The reason I talk about it is not because it is popular or I think I'm going to win an election with it. The reason I talk about it is because I care about it."

But it was when he got going about the risk to his own popularity that we got a real story:

"The duty of this Government is to deal with the economic mess that we've been left with. We've got to deal with that deficit. We have to make these cuts, we have to put up these taxes. It will not make us popular, in fact it will make us unpopular. It will make me unpopular. I recognise that. It's my duty.[my italics]

"We have to do this for the good of our country. We've been left the mess, we've got to clear it up. I don't believe it's impossible to do your duty at the same time as having a sense of mission and purpose in order to make this country a stronger, better, nicer place to live and make our communities more healthy.

"I think there is an enormous appetite for that. People do believe that we need a sort of social recovery as well as an economic recovery. This would be the right thing to do whether we were increasing public spending or cutting it."

Of course, the PM was facing a friendly audience as he relaunched the Good Ship BS down the slipway at Somerset House. He still has problems with the brute fact that lots of charities are being squeezed by council cuts, not just in terms of direct grants but in terms of their facilities.

But the bigger problem the Big Society has got is one of ridicule. Although the PM brushed aside the suggestion that people struggling to make ends meet would be less likely to take part in the Big Society, it's a point many make.

The PM was at one community venture, the People's Supermarket, in Camden this morning. Yet it was this same venture that featured on prime time ITV and the Harry Hill TV Burp on Saturday.

Watch THIS from 11.15mins.

Narrator: "Can Arthur's dream of a supermarket that's owned and run by the people change how Britain shops for food?"

Harry: "Er....No" (cue guffawing audience)

Narrator: "Will people in the UK be so keen to give up their time unpaid to work in the People's Supermarket?"

Harry: "Er....No" (cue more guffaws)

We heard a lot about why Andy Coulson (the conduit between the Coalition and tabloid-reading, ITV-watching Britain) was doubtful about the Big Society. The main claim was that BS was a distraction from the problems of Britain's striving classes.

I wonder if (ex-ITV man) Craig Oliver warned the PM about it before today's visit? Or did he go ahead regardless?

The PM today half-joked that he was delighted that at least his Big Society was a brand that was now being talked about. But the more cynical may say that Gerald Ratner ensured his brand was talked about too. And not in a good way..

 

UPDATE: Arthur Potts Dawson, the man behind the People's Supermarket, features in a sizeable ES Magazine article this weekend. Harry Mount (cousin of the PM, dontcha know), who wrote the feature, quotes Potts Dawson as saying: "I thought, "What can I do to connect with the masses?"  '

Harry also gives us a nice bit of trivia about Potts Dawson. Turns out that his mum is former model Kari-Anne Moller. She got a mere £20 for posing for this classic Roxy Music album cover...