Politics is a funny thing...no matter how many times parties are modernized or ‘reformed’ certain labels or attitudes seem to stick.

Despite the enthusiastic persecution of wars by both Bill Clinton and Tony Blair, the Democrats in the US seem to have to be justifying any measure taken to combat terrorism against an imaginary ‘toughness’ quotient set by the Republicans. And of course the Labour Party here, regardless of its devotion to the ‘act first think later’ policies of George W. Bush will always have to fight the perception that even though they were overtly keen, somehow they were denying troops the essential equipment needed to do the job. We’ll no doubt hear more of that when the Prime Minister gives evidence to the Chilcott Inquiry.

Just as Nixon could engineer a rapprochement with China (everyone knew he wouldn’t be ‘soft on Communism’) Margaret Thatcher and John Major, allied with Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were able to establish the necessary preconditions for European nuclear disarmament , Gorbachev’s asymmetrical cuts of tactical nuclear weapons and the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The shared vision of Reagan and Gorbachev at Reykjavik, that of a nuclear free world, hasn’t quite come to pass and there are a number of initiatives, including Global Zero which look promising and have support in surprising quarters, including in my party.

A revolution closer to home may be something else that can only be achieved by the Conservatives, too.

Today we face the prospect of a very radical devolution of power of the sort once only imagined by progressives experimenting with alternative living in the 1960’s. And who is its architect? In a bold and breathtaking announcement, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has pledged to release public sector workers from the strictures of local government bureaucracy to allow them to set up cooperatives and social enterprises along the model of John Lewis which makes staff share owners and involves them in decision making. The left will scream ‘but that idea belongs to us!’ and the right will say—as they already are saying ‘oh are you going to call these soviets?’

In fact, there are already examples around the country where this model has both improved the quality of services and improved staff retention, morale and pay. And very promisingly, this is happening in some of the poorest parts of the country, where people, given the power, are creating a very positive future for themselves.

Care and Share Associates started off years ago as a group of women helping each other with childcare above a shop one of them owned. The children grew up and the women thought ‘what do we do now?’ What they do now is to provide home care for people—contracted out by Sunderland Council—which is of a higher standard than that provided by numerous privately owned agencies and indeed, direct state provision. This has empowered the women, improved their self confidence and they get more qualifications and training than they would have had they worked directly for the Council . Their neighbours in the modest building they occupy are Sustainable Enterprise Strategies which has helped set up more than 75 local enterprises, including a dance centre to which people needing exercise, flexibility and stretching are referred by their GPs. I must mention that the driving force behind this is Chris Mullin MP’s former agent as I would not want to be accused of claiming these examples as Conservative initiatives. But they are great models for anyone around the country. Care and Share is also establishing itself in Newcastle, Manchester and Knowsley, all under local leadership.

The perplexing thing is why the Labour Party haven’t made more of this—could it be for fear of offending the unions? I asked about union membership in the places I visited and was told that people were perfectly entitled to be members, but as their salaries, conditions and personal development were more advantageous, they hadn’t actually required anything of their union rep.

And what about the Cooperative Party itself? Other people I have talked to, not those mentioned above, expressed disappointment with both the Government and the Coop Party for not seizing the initiative during the financial crisis of 2008 and pointing the cooperative and social enterprise model as the acceptable middle way between rampant capitalism and monolithic state provision. There is also a great deal of cynicism about Business Link which seems to be somewhat moribund, rather than a catalyst for change.

The revolution proposed by David Cameron and George Osborne really will give power to the people, and there, I think is the problem. The Labour Government doesn’t trust people. It wants to monitor them, make them sign homework forms, change their eating habits and measure their Body Mass Index, put them under surveillance and lock them up, but it prefers its cosy cabal of quangocrats to the prospect of people being truly free to determine their own destinies.

www.conservativecoops.com

Marjorie Thompson was Chair of CND from 1990-93 and now chairs the Conservative Cooperative Movement