Tories’ ‘Big Idea’ full of holes?

9:10am Thursday 10th July 2008

IWANT to tell you about scandal in London's City Hall - but please don't turn the page. Trust me, this is a story everyone in Britain should read.

Here in the capital, people are asking if the wheels have come off Mayor Boris Johnson's wagon after he suffered the resignation of his deputy, Ray Lewis, just two months into the job.

Lewis was forced to quit after a blitz of financial and sexual allegations concerning his time as a vicar and after he wrongly claimed he had been appointed a magistrate.

So far, so moderately interesting, but what, you ask, has bungling Boris falling flat on his face in London got to do with life in the North- East, or Yorkshire?

Well, the answer is that the Lewis affair is a pointer to what will happen nationwide if - as seems likely - David Cameron moves into Downing Street in 2010.

The Johnson mayoralty is a test-bed for the Tory leader's Big Idea' for his government, which is to roll back Labour's big state and invite charities and voluntary groups to step in instead.

It is Mr Cameron's prescription for Britain, summed up in his brilliant soundbite: "There is such a thing as society, it's just not the same thing as the state."

Nothing epitomises that better than the appointment of Lewis - an inspirational, go-getting outsider, not the sort of career politician that the Conservatives believe the public increasingly detests.

Lewis runs the military-style Eastside Young Leaders Academy which, with its marching drills for children expelled from mainstream schools, is the sort of self-help community scheme that Mr Cameron loves.

Until now, the big question about this plan to shrink the state was how on earth can charities and voluntary groups fill the mighty boots of government, with all the public services it provides?

That question remains unanswered. Just this week, a Commons committee found there was no evidence that the voluntary and notfor- profit sector provided public services more effectively than the Government.

But now there is another poser for Mayor Johnson and would-be Prime Minister Cameron. What checks will there be on these mavericks that would be put in charge of key aspects of our lives?

Most people seem to believe Lewis had genuine ideas for tackling the guns and knives crisis - just as there are many in the voluntary sector with so much to offer.

But, for good reason, the state must meet certain standards. And politicians, thank goodness - for all their faults - know they must answer to us.

WHEN, back in March, the Conservatives descended on Gateshead for their two-day Spring Forum, it was hailed as proof that the party was finally connecting with the people of the North-East.

Perhaps David Cameron - to underline that "I'm just like you" message - squeezed into a crowded East Coast train carriage on the way back to London, the way everyone else has to?

Or maybe he fought his way down the A1, still not a motorway for large chunks of the journey, cursing the bumper-to-bumper traffic?

Er, not exactly. According to the latest register of MPs interest, Mr Cameron bagged a lift in a private plane from Newcastle to Surrey - courtesy of Michael Hintze, an Australian hedge fund billionaire. Very Notting Hill.

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