YOU reported David Cameron’s passion for the Big Society and how the cuts are undermining this policy (Cuts undermine Oxfordshire’s Big Society, Oxford Mail February 15).
It seems odd that a policy which Mr Cameron says will define his premiership is little in evidence in the coalition’s flagship Health and Social Care Bill, which will radically reform the NHS.
Far from promoting democratic accountability and the devolution of power to citizens, it looks as if the National Commissioning Board, local GP consortia, the Health and Wellbeing Boards and the local Health Watch bodies will exclude citizens from the key planning and commissioning processes (or will, at best, offer tokenistic involvement).
Unless issues of democratic accountability are fundamentally reappraised as the Bill goes through the Commons, I conclude that Mr Cameron’s Big Society is mere rhetoric.
Phil Powell, Annesley Road, Oxford
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