The Conservative Party is expected to use its annual televised party political broadcast tomorrow night to urge viewers to donate to charities working to deliver aid to areas of east Africa ravaged by famine.
According to The Guardian, David Cameron has decided to forego the convention of using the broadcast to praise his party or condemn the Opposition, and will instead reveal that a string of ministers have donated to the famine relief effort and encourage the public to do likewise.
The story comes a day after ‘Red Tory’ Phillip Blond, one of the architects of the Big Society, said the Conservatives risked losing votes because they had not followed through with the concept.
He said ministers had allowed themselves to be distracted by deficit reduction to the point that it is all they appear to stand for, and that the execution of the Big Society had been “a disaster”.
He told The Times: “The debt strategy has been so successful it’s essentially sucked everything up into it and the Conservatives can’t win a majority on deficit reduction. There has to be a narrative, a policy and a strategy over and above that.
“We know that the Big Society narrative was very badly communicated. We know it was insufficiently thought through, and that people now think of it as just volunteering and philanthropy, which is a disaster.
“What I fear is that Conservatism has allowed itself to be positioned where it makes excuses for the top, squeezes the middle and cuts off the bottom.”
CAF: MPs should lead by example and donate
In response to the news about the televised appeal, the Charities Aid Foundation used the opportunity to reiterate its call for MPs to donate a percentage of their income to charity.
Head of policy Hannah Terrey said: “It’s really good that politicians are leading by example and talking about their giving. We have been calling on ministers to pledge to donate a percentage of their income to charity. It would be a big boost for the sector if the Prime Minister announced that in his speech on Wednesday.”
CAF has been campaigning at each of the party conferences to raise awareness of the fact that the UK public spends the same amount of money on charitable giving as on cheese – 0.4 per cent of weekly household income or £1.80 a week.
