It’s a landmark policy of David Cameron’s new government and a rare opportunity to talk about something more positive than spending cuts. But can Britain’s Prime Minister sell his idea of the Big Society? Even more basic, can he explain what he means?



Five hours after the launch, TV coverage was full of debate and questions about what the Big Society is. Cameron defined it as “creating communities with oomph” – that sounds both pithy and vague at the same time. The Labour party’s Ed Miliband has criticised the idea as “a return to Victorian values” – similarly snappy and perhaps dangerously memorable. It is already being used as a basis of questioning by anchors in TV interviews.

And here lies Cameron’s problem: Can he come up with a strong, memorable and quotable definition of his vision before opponents develop sharp put-downs that etch themselves on the public’s consciousness?

One test of a successful Core Message is whether different people pick up the same wording. Evidence indicates the broad idea is getting across, but in different guises:
BBC Online has gone for: A \"big advance for people power\".

ITN took this segment from the launch speech in its coverage: “We need to create communities with oomph, communities in charge of their own destiny, who if they club together and get involved they can shape the world around them.”
The Daily Telegraph Online picked up on the line: “the mass transfer of power from the state to people power.”

The Guardian’s website went for: “The big society ... is about liberation – the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street."

It seems the official definition is still up for grabs – Cameron’s challenge is to brand the Big Society before his opponents do.