Big Society has one Little Problem

So, the Conservatives' latest party election broadcast has been launched upon us. You can view it here.

Cameron begins by telling us that the TV debate has changed public perception of the political parties. Hair pushed back into his trademark right parting, he wears a blue shirt and speaks directly at the camera.

But something is different. Cameron sits outside, in a mildly attractive suburban garden. There are trees - old and new - and so much grass that half of the screen appears green. The message is clear: this is a man who has retained his core principles of conservatism, while bringing his party into the twenty-first century. He has adopted a new, progressive agenda which works in harmony with his party's core beliefs. As a metaphor for the modern conservative party, the scene works better than most. The true blue Tory leader sits, surrounded by the environment. Blue is in his heart, but green is nearby.

If it sounds farfetched, that's probably because it is. But, regardless, these are difficult times for the Tories, and Cameron is keen to recapture the 'progressive' vote he had such a grip on a year or two ago. In the rest of the broadcast, Cameron tries earnestly to convince voters that he is more honest, direct and hopeful than Nick Clegg, and that it is his party which can change Britain for the better. Despite not mentioning his yellow rival by name, the message is clear: anything he can do, I can do better.

In one particularly significant sequence, Cameron tells us that his big idea for the campaign is Big Society - the idea that powers and responsibility, particularly of services currently provided by the state, should be devolved out of government completely, into the hands of the people who are directly affected by those services: those who consume them. Cameron appears visibly passionate in this sequence, and viewers are left in no doubt that it is an issue he feels strongly about.

My worry for him is this: do people actually care about his Big Society? That may sound flippant, but I find it hard to believe that voters in Lab-Con marginals will be swayed by it. What does a typical, low-wage, inner-city voter have to gain from a Big Society in which you can elect your own police chief and run your own school? These ideas, like so many others of Cameron's, are simply not resonating with voters. He needs to find a way to turn his idealogical views into emotive election winners.

Big Society may strike a winning chord with diehard Tories and right wing sympathisers. But, if the polls are anything to go by, the floating voters who will actually decide this election remain unconvinced.