Jonathan Bryant (Brighton & Hove, Direct Democracy): The October Google Zeitgeist Conference in California was a particularly apposite occasion for David Cameron to set out a vision described recently by Steve Richards in The Independent as "potentially revolutionary in its implications, one that could at the very least transform the political culture in Britain". Mr Cameron's prediction that as a society we are on the cusp of a new ‘post-bureaucratic' age may not have caused intakes of breath in the nation's pubs and bars. But as more details emerge of what this new philosophy actually encapsulates, it is becoming clearer that his vision does indeed sum up the zeitgeist.
Recent policy announcements on parental choice in schooling, localised energy production, Wisconsin style welfare reform, directly-elected sheriffs and the establishment of a new Conservative Co-operative movement all have one common thread running through them: decentralisation. What Mr Cameron is outlining in his talk of a ‘post-bureaucratic' age is essentially a localist vision - recognising that the power of the central state to effect meaningful change over people's lives is severely limited. A much greater degree of local control allows communities to apply solutions best suited to meet their needs - decisions should be taken as closely as possible to the people they affect. Such diversity also works at a national level - local innovation would allow others to copy the best, as happened in the USA with welfare reform.
Without wishing to sound too self-congratulatory, Direct Democracy would like to take some credit for the ideas that are now emerging from Conservative Central Office. As a group of new Conservative MPs, MEPs and candidates, we have been espousing this localist theme for some time now. Indeed, all the ideas listed above - along with pushing the powers of regional assemblies and quangos down to local councils and scrapping Crown Prerogative appointment powers - originated in our manifesto, Direct Democracy - Agenda for a New Model Party. As Mr Cameron himself stated recently: "I passionately believe we need to localise power, as recommended by the Direct Democracy movement of Conservative activists and MPs". And whilst we are delighted that Mr Cameron has started to draw out some of the practical implications of the new vision, we would urge him to be even bolder.
For us, the essential prerequisite to any genuine and meaningful devolution of power is to make local councils self-financing. Cameron's recent pledge to force referenda on councils who propose unreasonable council tax increases may superficially seem an attractive application of local direct democracy. But in principle, it would have much the same effect as a crude central capping. Similarly, the supply-side revolution in school places promised by the Party's new education green paper needs to be accompanied by demand side reform - namely a legally enshrined right giving every child's parents the right to request and receive the funding for his or her education, to take to the school of their choice.
However, the mood music is extremely encouraging and, despite opposition claims of lack of substance, a clear vision is emerging. Michael Gove recently summed up the zeitgeist in characteristically elegant fashion:
In every area of life the future rests not with the exercise of massive power from one central point but the enabling of growth through constant innovation and adaption. We can no longer control society as a diplodocus controlled its tail, from one tiny brain that is immeasurably distant from the action
The future's bright; the future's local.
