Community, community, community

Before he was elected in 1997, Tony Blair famously said that his priorities were "education, education, education".   One of the key planks for the New Consciousness is "community, community, community", and so it was a pleasure to hear one of the main political parties in the UK moving in this direction by proposing today that self-governing co-operatives be established within local areas, to reduce or eliminate government bureaucracy and interference.  The idea could, potentially, apply to all public sector situations including schooling and policing.

The transfer of power from state to the community (for this is what it would be) could be sensitive and difficult to implement, but if there is the will and the courage to see it through, the benefits would be enormous - economies of scale, vision, variety, commitment, inclusion, independence, accountability and localism, for a start.  Because each enterprise would be not-for-profit, an ethos of altruism should be pre-eminent.

Doubters and sceptics will, probably, seek to undermine the idea even before it has been announced officially.  I hope that  commentators and pundits will see this not as a political football for once but as an idea worthy of serious consideration and exploration.  It is an idea the time for which has come.