Cameron's Big Society To The Daily Telegraph

To The Daily Telegraph
The Conservatives plan government of the people, by the people, for the people - actually an accurate description of democracy. In Switzerland, it has been working well for hundreds of years.
We have between two and ten national referendums a year. Peoples referendums can be forced, locally and nationally, when enough signatures have been gathered. One of these, incidentally, kept us out of the EU when the government wanted to join.
These measures let us keep a tight rein on government, although referendums can significantly slow down the decision-making process - not always a bad thing.
Local referendums are held frequently to decide on building projects, schools, hospitals, roads and so on. Local authorities have fiscal control of all expenditure that is not centrally administered (such as motorways, railways, the army), and they have to make ends meet or be held accountable.
National elections are held every four years to elect members to both houses of parliament. Our seven (not dozens of) ministers are elected to the Bundesrat from the MPs in proportion to the number of seats held by the main parties.

proportion to the number of seats held by the main parties. So we have a government by consensus. Though party politics do play a role in elections, decisions are made for the common good.
You might as well give it a try. Everything else seems to have failed.
Roger West, Appenzell, Switzerland
To The Guardian
I'm an active participant in a community group in south Brixton (the Josephine Avenue Group). Residents associate for all kinds of things: book clubs, street cleans, street lunches and loancd-garden projects.
We work with excellent local (predominantly Labour and Lib Dem) councillors and council employees who are dedicated, interested and supportive. We're successful in opposing unwelcome development. We represent residents' concerns about late licences and street crime.
We work with responsive, intelligent and friendly Local police on street crime and community support. We help fund a local children's football tournament with money raised largely through our excellent annual art fair, whose proceeds this year will also support a local hospice.
Somehow, this has all been possible without the Conservative party, whose immensely fatuous invitation to get involved is as irrelevant as it is patronising. The challenge is finding ways for people to want to be involved, not telling them that they should be.