Anthony Barnett (London, OK): According to this morning's ePolitix alert our Community Secretary (where did that title come from!) Hazel Blears is going to tell the New Local Government Network that everything is improved by the participation of local people and that,
"Charters or so-called 'community contracts' will help councils, police and health authorities and local people to work together in tackling the issues that matter, improving their local neighbourhoods and improve public satisfaction."
Is this going to take us back to the desperate days of John Major's Citizens Charters? There was an odd sense at the time that the impact of Charter 88 led them to say, "You want citizenship? You want charters?" These contrivances are all too obvious attempts to involve people in keeping a flawed and hyper-centralised system on its knees.
