3 September 2007
The Prime Minister has promised "a new type of politics" as he announced plans to broaden consultation in government decisions.
Read the full speech
Prime Minister:
Can I say first of all I am delighted to be here, delighted to be with the National Council of Voluntary Organisations and delighted to have in this audience with us some of the country’s greatest campaigners and some of the country’s greatest campaigning organisations. And I pay tribute to the work of the National Council of Voluntary Organisations under your leadership, Stuart, and I pay tribute to all of you here today from the voluntary and community sector for the passion, for the commitment, for the fearlessness you bring to your work and for the extraordinary things that you achieve each and every day on behalf of those that you serve.
And the reason that I am here this morning to speak to an audience of people that makes change happen in our communities, day in day out, is very simple, it is because I believe that the big challenges that we face as a country, from security, to climate change, to global competition, to the rising aspirations of individuals, to the desire for stronger, safer, more sustainable communities throughout our country, I believe that these challenges can no longer be solved by the old politics. I do believe that Britain needs a new type of politics which embraces everyone in the nation and not just a select few, a politics that is built on consensus and not division, a politics that is built on engaging with people and not excluding them, and perhaps most of all a politics that draws upon the widest range of talents and expertise, not narrow circles of power.
This is the politics of the mainstream centre ground in Britain, it takes a hard look at the tough questions, doesn’t promise an easy path of short term slogans, it is a politics of the common ground and draws upon the common sense of people and it is where the new progressive consensus will be built so that we can meet the challenges of change in the long term interests of our country.
So quite simply I reject the old politics of dividing people, not uniting them, of quick fixes, not the long term solutions that everybody knows we must work hard to achieve together, and it means therefore debating concerns and issues like housing, crime, the NHS, schools, community development and regeneration, debating issues that affect local communities direction, not just in the corridors of power but throughout the country.
And so let me say what this means for the next stage of the development of our country in my view. I know that in this room today each of you is working in very special and dedicated ways in the different organisations you represent, committing your energies and often your whole lives to the good of the people of this country. You shape new ways of strengthening our communities, improve our public services in doing so, meet new and sometimes otherwise unmet needs and you enrich our civil society. And although ours is an era in which many of the traditional structures of society and association and voluntary engagement have declined, I have also seen round the country as I have visited different communities new and vibrant forms of civic life, social and community action, multi-media technologies that have transformed and are transforming the scope and nature of civic participation. And I have travelled round the country outside Whitehall and Westminster to see in social enterprise, in local environmental action, in new forms of neighbourhood engagement, in non-governmental organisations such as Make Poverty History, a new Britain that is being born and it is a Britain that we must recognise and celebrate.
Action by individuals, that even the words voluntarism and voluntary action no longer fully capture, are happening daily in our communities. There are 50,000 social enterprises with a combined turnover of £27 billions. Half of the population, as we know, volunteers at least once a month. We have to reach out and connect with this new energy and enterprise and it is urgent that we do so because of the profound new challenges that I believe this country faces now and for the future cannot be solved, cannot be met by top-down solutions simply by saying, as people often did in the past, that the man in Whitehall knows best. These challenges that each community faces requires us to devise new ways of responding to the aspirations and concerns of the British people. Climate change for example demands that we combine international action and investment with the direct personal and social responsibility and commitment of ordinary people in every community of our country. Tackling crime and security demands we build support in each community for community actions that will tackle and reduce and prevent violent crime, increased global competition and meeting that challenge demands people themselves make decisions about how they will upgrade their skills and they must themselves therefore be involved in the economic decisions.
New pressures faced by children and their parents can be addressed only by the engagement of parents and children themselves. The yearning for stronger communities that I detect when I travel round the country requires us to play our part as local citizens in actually building these communities.
So I do not agree with the old belief of half a century ago that we can issue commands from Whitehall and expect the world to change, nor can we leave these great social challenges simply to the market alone. Indeed when we think about how to tackle the big challenges we face it is increasingly the culture in which we live our lives that matters, our beliefs and aspirations, the values and norms that shape our goals and the boundaries that we set and are prepared to set for the way we behave in our families and in our communities.
So only a new kind of politics can help us meet these challenges, whether it is tackling crime or gang violence, the future health of the nation or climate change, the solutions will not come from simply a narrow debate between what states do and what markets do. We found in the 20th century the limits of this paradigm is through people themselves, through cultural and social change that we will see the difference being made. It is people who are engaged in changing the world as individuals, parents, neighbours and active citizens that will be the next momentum for change.
Now many will recall that when I took over as Prime Minister I emphasised that the government must listen and the government must learn. And now I say that we must do more, we must engage and involve with people on the issues they face in their early day lives, and that means each challenge we face requires us to be open to new ideas and to new ways of doing things and this is the unique and pressing requirement that demands this new politics.
September usually sees the resumption of Westminster politics, but while party politics resumes its normal routines it cannot and should not be this year business as usual. Facing serious challenges we must address together as a nation, the British people deserves better. And I believe I am not alone in thinking that the normal politics, the old tired sloganising politics of the past should not resume in the old ways this autumn.
I think we are being held back by three great failings in our political system: the political parties themselves have not reached out enough to people so we have to rise to the challenge of forging a better party politics; that the political system too often ignores or neglects new ideas that flow from outside in Westminster and often in the past have failed to listen and learn, so we have to rise to the challenge of opening up our political system to recognise and to take on board new ideas; and our participatory democracy is too weak at a local level so we have to rise to the new challenge of encouraging engagement. Indeed the power of progressive politics rests in the empowerment of people it serves and that is our purpose and I believe progressive politics in this country will only truly succeed in shaping a better Britain if we actively reach out to new ideas, if we find new ways of engaging people in their communities and then build a consensus for change. So I don’t want to carry on with politics as usual.
And let us be clear about the basic facts. Once 84% of people voted, and that was 17 out of every 20, in the last election it was less than 62% - 12 in every 20. In the 1950s 1 in 11 people joined a political party, today it is 1 in 88. Once political parties aggregated views from millions of people, now they need to broaden their appeal to articulate the views of more than the few. In 1987 nearly half the electorate identified fairly, or strongly, or very strongly with a political party, now only 1 in 3 do so. 20 years ago 4 in 10 people trusted the government to put the needs of the nation above those of political parties, more recently it has been only 1 in 5.
And this is not because politicians are necessarily as individuals less trustworthy or because they work less hard, nor does it mean the end of political parties. Party politics remains at the heart of a representative democracy, it reflects inevitable differences of values and principles and it is fundamental to citizens to have a clear choice of programmes and policies. But I believe that the evidence shows that the depths of people’s concerns cannot be met by the shallowness of an old-style politics. The breadth of these new challenges I have identified cannot be addressed by the narrowness of the old tired political discourse, so to make change happen, to secure the national interest, to fulfil our potential as a country we need to reach out beyond governing parties, we must be open to new ideas, we must take them on from whatever quarter they come. Change happens when we involve people who are rarely involved and want to do more than cast a vote at elections, change happens when we enhance rather than constrain democracy at the local grass roots level.
And I want to propose new ways of reaching out today, reaching out so that voices outside my party are heard and that means voices outside normal political processes, for politics cannot resume in new ways without recognising the need to engage people of no party as well.
So here is the outline of some initial proposals. In the constitutional statement before the summer I suggested how the Executive should give up power to the legislator and that both the Executive and the law-making body must be more closely in touch with the British people. I now have three proposals that enable us to reach out beyond governing parties and strengthen the link between people and parliament, citizens, communities and government.
First, if we are to meet the challenge of engagement the old models of consultation need radical renewal. While they have been useful in shaping policies we have come nowhere near realising the potential of the public to make better policies. I am determined that the wisdom and experience that resides within the British people will be better put to use in the future. Now in the old days when politicians went round the country the principal method of communication was political party speeches from platforms. More recently this country opened up to question and answer sessions where politicians went round the country offering to do questions and then answers, and often, I admit at least in my case, the answers from the politicians were far longer than the questions. Now we need new ways and means to bring together citizens to discuss both specific challenges that need addressing, and concrete proposals that we can discuss for change. We have already taken the step of publishing the legislative programme in draft, inviting comments and views, and for the last six months I have been discussing and working through how to do in a more consultative way that involves people in debating the issues that matter - drugs, crime, antisocial behaviour, housing development or even foreign policy issues like Iraq where there are public discussions.
So starting this week we will hold Citizens Juries round the country. The members of these juries will be chosen independently. Participants will be given facts and figures that are independently verified, they can look at real issues and solutions, just as a jury examines a case. And where these citizens juries are held the intention is to bring people together to explore where common ground exists.
The first Citizens Jury will be held later this week on issues related to children, how to ensure that every child can be safe, secure, successful at school; how parents can get the advice and support they need as they try to bring up their children; how we can ensure that our education system for every child reaches the highest standards. And I know too that parents are concerned about whether children are too exposed to harmful violence and sexual imagery in video computer games and on the internet, so as we launch the court consultation on our children’s plan we will be looking at all the evidence on the effects of this material, whether we need new rules for the advertising and sale of these products to children and young people, and what more can be done to help parents regulate access to inappropriate material on the internet.
The second Citizens Jury will be held next week on crime and communities. None of us needs reminding, after the all too tragic events of recent weeks, of the horrific consequences of gun and gang violence. We will do everything in our power to catch and convict those responsible for such heinous crimes that have shocked every parent and every community. And we know that for the people in criminal justice agencies to take effective action to enforce the law, the involvement and support of local people is crucial, that crime falls when communities become stronger. So the Citizens Jury on crime will look at how we can empower people in their neighbourhoods to work with the police and other agencies to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour.
It will be followed by nine simultaneous Citizens Juries on the future of the National Health Service, one in each region, linked by video. These will bring together patients, staff, the public. They will examine major questions of concern to people, like access to services, the quality and safety of care, how we can reduce health inequalities.
So in the next three weeks we will tackle three big issues in Citizens Juries. But this is not a one-off event, it is going to be an ongoing process of reaching out, of doing the business of government differently. So for example I believe we can only win hearts and minds in the fight against terrorism if we engage people in discussion, debate, dialogue at the grass roots, in people’s communities. This will therefore be an issue that we will put to the people directly, particularly in those areas most affected, in encouraging local debate, dialogue and interaction.
I also propose that representatives assembled from every constituency come together in a nationwide set of Citizens Juries held on one day. And these juries will look at a range of issues like crime and immigration, education, health, transport and public services, and I hope they will receive the enthusiastic support of MPs and local councillors from whatever party. Citizens Juries will help shape the policies in the way that people for whom they are created want. Direct citizen involvement in policy making can be the ally rather than the enemy of a renewed representative democracy. And a Citizens Summit, composed of a representative sample of the British people, will be asked to formulate the British statement of values that was proposed in our Green Paper on the future government of Britain, a living statement of rights and responsibilities for the British people. It won’t take root anyway unless there is a real sense that it has been brought forward by people themselves, and this will be part of the wider programme on consultation led by Jack Straw and Michael Wills on the British statement of values, the idea of a British Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, rights and duties, the components of the Constitutional Reform Bill. Jack Straw will announce details of this programme shortly.
Now Citizens Juries are not a substitute for representative democracy, they are an enrichment of it. The challenge of reviving local democracy can only be met if we build new forms of citizen involvement to encourage them in our local services and in new ways of holding people who run our services to account. So we will expand opportunities for deliberation, we will extend democratic participation in our local communities. I want to see a vibrant reformed local democracy, from neighbourhood level engagement, community calls to action, a renewed focus on the devolution of powers and responsibilities to local government, the accountability of our police, our healthcare services to their communities. In this way people can connect neighbourhood meetings, local ballots and elections and new forms of community action for decision making and the exercise of power over issues they care about in their daily lives. And as part of a new concordat between local and central government, Hazel Blears will be working on proposals for the extension of local democracy in these areas.
My second proposal is that we set up new standing commissions where we can bring together not just people of all parties, but representatives from outside the normal party system to examine continuing issues of concern. Now choosing these issues would be on the basis that they are long term and usually non-ideological concerns that it is in the interests of the whole nation to agree to meet together.
Take for example carers. As our society ages our need for carers rises. Care is an issue that will affect us all in some way in the future. Nobody understands this better than the many organisations in the voluntary and community sector, many of them here today who support carers and the cared for, and who advocate for them. I believe that the thinking that will be of best help for carers and those cared for will draw upon the ideas, the views and the values of the 6 million British carers themselves.
Last year when I went to visit the home of a carer I heard at first hand the struggle and yet the desire to help others in the same position. She wanted to train carers, to advise and perhaps even to help service carers with her own company set up for that purpose. And she told me she doesn’t want the government to walk away, she wants the government on her side, and it is when government works in partnership with the voluntary sector, local authorities and carers themselves that we can do most to make lives better. But in future working in partnership must mean not only listening and learning, but involving and engaging the carers themselves in solutions we need.
So building on the consultation we are already undertaking this year with carers, I believe we should now establish a standing commission on carers. Philippa Russell, a leading expert and advocate, will work with Ivan Lewis, the Minister for Carers, to take forward this proposal. And because I favour breaking through the old sterile party divides I also want to ensure that advice can be given by the best people of whatever political persuasion, and reviews that are necessary in the national interest can be done by people, irrespective of party label, who have important contributions to make.
I have asked Patrick Mercer MP, a recognised expert on security issues, to advise Lord West on the security of our infrastructure and our crowded places. John Bercow MP, Chair of the All Party Group, will lead a review of services for young people and children who have speech, learning and communications needs and he will report to the Secretary for Children and the Secretary for Health, and full details of this will be announced next week. Mathew Taylor MP will advise on land use through the planning system in support of sustainable rural communities and he will report to the Secretary for Environment and the Minister for Housing.
And then in order to address the problems of the political system itself, I want to revive the idea of a Speaker’s Conference. A Speaker’s Conference brings together all the parties at Westminster to look at issues that can only be dealt with on a cross-party basis. In the last century there were five Speaker’s Conferences and each looked at different aspects of the political and electoral system - reform of the franchise, distribution of parliamentary seats, registration of electors and other matters. Today I am proposing to the Speaker that he calls a conference to consider against the backdrop of a decline in turnout, a number of other important issues such as registration, weekend voting, the representation of women and ethnic minorities in the House of Commons, and that he should also examine in parallel with the Youth Citizenship Commission whether we should lower the voting age to 16 so that we build upon citizenship education in schools and combine the right to vote with the legal recognition of when young adults become citizens of our country.
And let me also confirm discussions are now being held to arrange a sitting of the Youth Parliament in the House of Commons.
Instead therefore of dividing along party lines, I propose that the Speaker’s Conference unite the parties, bring them together in search of solutions that we can jointly agree on to the disengagement of people from the political process.
Now in the next few weeks I will talk in depth about terrorism and security, about global economic cooperation and competition, about the environmental challenge, about the rising aspirations that we need to meet of the British people for better public services, and how there is a shared agenda for new and better opportunities. But my basic thesis today is that I believe that this is the wrong time in history for politics as usual, the wrong time for empty partisan posturing which focuses only on what divides. Faced with the common challenges that we face together it is the wrong time for continuing to treat citizens simply as members of contending groups as if there was no scope for common ground, the wrong time for perpetuating the sterile divisions and archaic battles for territory that dominated the ideologies of an ever more distant past. Instead this is the right time to discover what we have in common, to cooperate across party lines, to work together with patriotic purpose to do what is right in the British interest, to move from that common ground to the higher ground of each doing what we can do together to advance our countries and our country’s best interests and ideals.
The voluntary and community sector understands these principles better than anyone. I believe that in the local government proposals the desire of the voluntary sector to be consulted, and the duty on local authorities to do so, will be fully recognised for the first time. I believe that these principles are ones that apply at a national as well as a local level. You are putting the principles of consulting, listening, engaging, involving and serving into practice every day, you share our commitment to changing our society for the better. So this is a new kind of politics I want, it is not an easy politics, it is not about gimmicks, it is about doing things the hard way, it is about finding real solutions to challenges that if we do not face them together we will not address them successfully at all, and it is a politics of consensus because our progressive ambitions for Britain will only be met in the mainstream centre ground where all the talents and energies of the country can be prepared to come together. It is however a politics built on engagement and empowerment because lasting change only happens if people make it happen, and it is I hope a politics of common purpose because our country’s future can only be built by being fair to every single person in our community.
Thank you very much.
Chairman:
Well that is a small agenda then. I am going to open up now for some questions. The Prime Minister has agreed to take a few questions, he is pretty busy and has to shoot off, I guess, but he is going to take some questions first.
Question:
I am Head of Policy and Campaigns at Leonard Cheshire, a large disability organisation. Prime Minister, how do we ensure that a move towards democracy with campaigning organisations at its core does not merely become a contest between those who shout the loudest, have the most resources or the best contracts? And may I also ask you in your Speaker’s Conference to ensure that they look at the representation of disabled people in the House of Commons also.
Question:
Good Morning. We are as passionate about grass roots engagement as the Prime Minister and indeed it is what we do best in the voluntary sector, however it is very difficult for small organisations to deliver on some of these big issues. Do you have any idea as to how the government can help small organisations, and especially those in the women’s sector and other equality groups, to engage in this process?
Question:
If citizens increasingly struggle to make the minimum effort to go out and vote, how will we convince them to commit the extra effort needed to engage properly with campaigning organisations?
Prime Minister:
It would be a very strange speech if I had said we must listen and learn and then rushed off without answering any questions, so I am happy to answer and hope we can continue this dialogue. And let me just say, the renewal of the compact with the voluntary sector, the compact that I believe over the last 10 years has made a difference, is first of all to give more stability of funding to the voluntary sector, and I personally am very committed to the three year funding we announced that we want to make happen when we complete our Spending Review. To answer the last question and what has been said about small organisations and the difficulties that organisations have of raising finance, I think one survey that was done showed that 75% of voluntary organisations only had three months finance at most. Now that prevents you being innovative because you cannot risk funds that you do not have, it also prevents you from expanding when you have got a very good project, and we need to find a better way of financing innovative projects in the voluntary sector and that is why these social investment bank ideas are being promoted now and I hope that soon we will be able to say that we have found a basis of long term funding for a new kind of social investment bank that would allow new ideas to be financed and would allow organisations trying to expand, but prevented from doing so from having no certainty of funds to take them forward, to be able to do things that are innovative.
On disabled access but also generally on the rights of disabled people, I do assure you that that will be something I will talk to the Speaker about for the conference.
On this issue about the independence of the voluntary sector, which essentially has been raised almost by all the three questions, let me just say that I have always wanted to recognise that when voluntary organisations and charities and community groups disagree with government, or disagree with local government that is irrespective of funding decisions, and we wrote into the first compact that irrespective of whatever views that voluntary organisations expressed, this should not have any effect on the funding. I believe that we should be considering going further now because I am aware that charities defined as charities have difficulties when they wish to advocate and put forward the views that they hold very strongly, and I do not personally believe that you can be an effective charity and community organisation if you see something on the ground, if you see something that needs to be changed, and somehow you are limited in the advocacy and your ability independently to speak out and say what is wrong. And I think we will have to, but it is really a matter for the Charities Commission and what is happening there, we will have to look at how we can safeguard the independence of charities to speak out on issues that they think are important without it affecting their ability to raise funds and do so in the charitable sector.
So I am interested in what upholds the rights of charities to campaign as well as to do the basic work of providing services, and I do want to say, because you will be critical of things that governments do, you are not slow to express worries when there is a funding issue, and that is right, but I will defend and ought to, all of us, all parties, defend your right to campaign irrespective of funding decisions that are made. And the whole purpose of renewing the compact is that the independence of voluntary organisations and charities is established.
And I said when we published the local government White Paper and said that local authorities had a duty - a duty - to listen to public opinion in their areas, and that included listening to all voluntary sector organisations before making the decisions. I think that is a pretty good principle for the future and it may itself lead to a revival of democracy.
The last question was essentially equality for women. I think you will find, and she has already announced, Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons is seeking consultations about how we can promote greater equality. Certain great advances have been made in recent years and I think we must acknowledge that, there is still however a long way to go in many areas.
How can we, as the last questioner asked, revive our democracy? If people are unlikely to vote, are they unlikely to involve themselves in community organisations? Of course the irony is that people are actually prepared to do things other than vote, sometimes in even bigger numbers, and I am not just talking about voting in Big Brother. People are prepared, as we found, millions of people in the Make Poverty History Campaign, millions of people now involved in environmental groups of a wide range, millions of people I think who do not consider themselves volunteers are actually doing what we would consider community work or work of service to other people. And sometimes I feel that our definition of what is voluntary activity or charitable work during the course of a week, or a month, or a year, is to encompass the range of things that people are doing to help their fellow citizens. So I think the revival of the engagement in the political process may be preceded by people being involved far more actively in their own communities. And I think it is the duty of all of us to get across this view, you cannot build strong communities unless people are themselves involved in building them, and we, or you, whatever organisation, cannot impose from the outside a view of the community unless people themselves are involved in making it. So I am less pessimistic about the future of engagement in voluntary activity, what I have seen round the country is that more people are prepared to do things, but in different ways, sometimes it is less structured, it is not formal organisations, sometimes it is intermittent rather than every day, or every week, or every month people doing things, but I think we should build on the reservoir of goodwill that exists throughout our country to make good things that are wrong, and really we rely so much on the everyday efforts of your organisations to do so.
Question:
Prime Minister, I think of myself as a good citizen, I am an active citizen and I am a capable citizen, but that is by virtue of knowledge, training and skills. Yet when I look at many people and they are being asked to engage more in democratic institutions, what about the training, the skills and the knowledge for those people to engage more? When I consider my engagement with public institutions it is difficult, even with the knowledge, skills and training that I have. What about those people who are being asked to engage more, what about more people who are being asked to engage? Finally how can the compact and the proposed British statements of rights and values give those people the knowledge, the skills and the training to engage more?
Question:
I am delighted you are talking about engagement and delighted you are optimistic, it sets a good tone. But we know that citizen engagement is driven by passion, personal interests and their beliefs, and whilst government has got a really important role in supporting engagement it cannot and must not absolutely shape it. So how can you Prime Minister ensure the government gets the balance right of support and shaping?
Question:
You have offered solutions of juries, commissions and conferences, and yet at the same time we are seeing a massive growth in social networking, facebooks and the like that are actually describing a very dramatic different way that individuals engage with each other and with society. My question is really how can we ensure that perhaps voluntary groups that rely on time, passion and the money of these people don’t go the same way of the participation in local democracy?
Prime Minister:
Well these are all very important questions. Let me start with the last one. We have set up a review into social technology and how it can benefit communities and we want to give prizes every year for those people who are making big advances in social interaction through using the new technologies. I mean it is true to say that in Britain today MySpace is the biggest youth club, and it is true to say that some of the great internet organisations are getting through to far more people, like Mumsnet or some of the organisations that are linking parents together in a way that formal organisations find difficult to do so. So yes we have got to encourage the new technology, we have got to make it possible for organisations to adapt to the new technology, and one of the reasons that we have tried to provide grants for innovative things is so that organisations can do so. And I think if we celebrate where advances are made in the internet that encourage community action, encourage community networks, that would be a very good thing to do.
The first question was about, you started off with this issue about training in the voluntary sector. The Commission on Volunteering in England is proposing, as I think people here know, that we do far more to help train people. I want us to provide some more finance to enable that to happen. It is clearly a challenge for the future that more training funds are available for this and I think we should see it as a central part of what we can actually do to back up the great work that different voluntary organisations are doing and we will try to do that.
On this issue about the balance between in a sense relying on local and national campaigns to change opinion, and governments themselves saying they like it but are perhaps threatened by it, I veer on the side, as I used to say to Make Poverty History, and I was very much involved in both its origins because as people here know Make Poverty History brought together maybe 150 different campaigning organisations and they came together for a year to do a major piece of work. I used to say look work with us on the things that we can do where we can influence opinion in Britain but also of course make a difference to the way governments behave around the world, but I don’t expect you to agree, or to give us a blank cheque, or to say that we are doing all the right things, I expect you and you must be free and you always will be free to say what you want. So I think government does have a role because it provides a forum in some cases, we can provide encouragement in other cases, we can provide sponsorship in some cases of new projects. Where there are international projects of course we can provide a means by which what happens in Britain can have sometimes a bigger effect through pressing other governments round the world, but it is for you to press, it is for you to defend your independence, it is for you as I say to have better rights of advocacy than you have in the past.
There is an issue for example about charities and voluntary organisations being able to go into schools and what they say in schools and I still believe it is right to say that if you are explaining something, whether you are the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds or whether on the other hand you have got a cause like Make Poverty History and you are explaining something in a school, it should not be wrong for you to say you know we urge you to support this cause, and of course that has been a controversial thing as well. So getting the balance right is important but let me be absolutely clear that I defend the independence of the voluntary sector. I have worked with a large number of voluntary organisations. I think you are right to speak your mind, it can be better protected in future with the work of the Charities Commission, but equally of course where we can work together in the public interest, where we have a shared public purpose in improving the life of our community, where we can see together that there is something wrong, that by acting together quickly we can sort it out, we must and should work together. And I see the country as thousands of organisations that are bright sparks of light right throughout our country, but at times we can come together and the bright shining light of all of us working together for a single end can make for a far better country, and I just want to thank you for everything you do.
Chairman:
Well on behalf of you all I would like to take this opportunity to thank you Prime Minister for that. I think you have set a direction about engagement which is fundamentally important in opening up a dialogue between government and civil society. Broadening the nature of politics in the way that you have I think gives us an opportunity to engage and I think we should seize that opportunity. It is our role in part to speak the truth to power and to open up that dialogue with civil society and I think this represents a very serious opportunity for all of those in our sector to engage in that dialogue in a constructive way. So once again thank you very much indeed for coming. Can I just in passing also thank you for the Third Sector Review, I think it was a marvellous review, we are very, very pleased with the outcome…I think it was an outstanding piece of work and we look forward to working with you Prime Minister.
delicious
digg
facebook
