Heated discussions are par for the course at Public Administration Select Committee meetings, but in its final Big Society inquiry session Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude at least managed to refrain from the colourful language he has previously used. Vibeka Mair reports from the debate.
This week saw the final session of the Public Administration Select Committee’s (PASC) inquiry into the Big Society, where Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude stood as witness, along with Nick Hurd, minister for civil society and Greg Clark, minister for decentralisation and cities.
Just weeks before, the Select Committee had issued a damning report on the Big Society, saying it would fail because civil servants had not been equipped with the right tools to implement it.
Yesterday, chair of the PASC Sir Bernard Jenkins addressed these concerns to Maude, urging him a number of times to release a White Paper for the civil service on how to implement the Big Society, in a heated but civil debate.
But Maude consistently refused. “I’m keener on doing things,” he said at one point. “I don’t think a White Paper will suddenly bring the civil service into a rapid strategic capability. It’s not a magical cure,” he asserted.
Jenkins tried to tease out the issue in a variety of ways. “Just produce one (a White Paper) and see what it looks like,” he suggested.
But Maude stood his ground. “What is urgent is action, not a plan. Go to the parliamentary library, it’s full of White Papers.”
Later in the meeting, however, Maude did concede he was wrong in saying the National Trust’s opposition to the government’s direction on planning reforms was ‘bollocks’ to a newspaper last month.
“I regret the colourful language,” he said.
But the apology gave him the opportunity to tactfully refute a long critique of the Big Society from Labour MP Paul Flynn.
“Big Society should have been a stampede of doing more things,” said Flynn. “What’s happened to Lord Wei?” he asked. “The Big Society is a big con,” he concluded.
“I hesistate to use the phrase we discussed before,” Maude replied. “But that’s what I think.”
