Today David Cameron launches the first stage of the Big Society. This will see help for museum volunteering, encourage recycling and enable communities to buy their own pubs. Predictably the idea has been attacked at being "cover for cuts" by a Labour Party that increasingly has little positive to say.
Yet the Big Society idea could make a real difference. Where is it written that giving power to the people has to be small scale? These pilots are a good idea, yet I hope we will see the scale expanded in the near future. There is no reason why a project cannot run into the hundreds of millions of pounds.
This is why I have tabled a Big Society project for the Port of Dover to become a people's port. The port is worth hundreds of millions of pounds. Labour were planning to sell it off to the French or whoever for a quick buck in the car boot sale. Yet the community are saying if the Government wants to sell it, they want to be able to buy it. The plan I have put together is costed, funded and would ensure the port works better with the community and the ferry companies at Dover. This could be the Big, Big Society in action.
