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Today saw David Cameron bring his ‘PM Direct’ event to central Birmingham. I attended the event and felt that the Prime Minister delivered a polished performance – handling the questions put to him very well, turning the debate around to the Big Society wherever possible or tackling the budget deficit.
An interesting question was raised on the issue of retrofitting, and I was pleased he made the connection to green jobs and didn’t just refer to fuel poverty and saving money. Another gentleman asked a question challenging the idea of climate change and the PM was swift to point out that he felt that even if you didn’t believe in the science, (which he personally did) if your house was at risk of burning down you would still take insurance out, so action on climate change was needed. He then made the link to energy security: we can't rely on ever more difficult to reach carbon fuels, so action is required anyway. A colleague who works on a number of Groundwork projects asked what support would be given to disadvantaged communities to play an active role in the Big Society. Acknowledging that the third sector has been helping to create the conditions needed for a Big Society long before he coined the term, Cameron said that he saw the Government’s role was to help the sector to do more of what’s required to do so, instead of less – something that perhaps bodes a bit more positively for the future than the cuts agenda might imply.
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