THRILLING? MAYBE. WINNING? CERTAINLY.:

Mister Nice has discovered the thrill of the third way: Cameron has used classic Tory ideology to seek out Labour's weak spot: big central government. But can he walk the walk? (Simon Jenkins, October 4, 2006, The Guardian)

[B]uried in Cameron's speech were the seeds of his own third way, not Thatcherism or Blairism but a distinctive "narrative" in which electors can embed their aspirations. The rubric, social responsibility, is intended to exploit a weakness in Labour's armour, as Blair did with the apparent callousness of 1990s Toryism. The new message is that Labour's campaign to transform Britain's public services - the last unfinished business of Thatcherism - has run into the sand. It has left people feeling disempowered, stripped of either personal or collective responsibility.

While Cameron is careful always to acknowledge Blair's good intentions, he claims that his and Gordon Brown's obsession with control has led to the "nationalisation of everything". Labour is the party of pessimism, holding that Britain's individuals, associations and professions are essentially incompetent and must be led by the hand by central government, the Treasury and targetry. This involves "a culture of irresponsibility ... whose unintended consequences are doing much harm". So far, so good.

The new antithesis lies in our old friend, decentralisation. On schools, hospitals and policing, and public governance generally, Cameron declares: "I want to trust local leaders not undermine them: we will hand power to local councils and local people." This should release the wellsprings of voluntarism and professional autonomy. It should rebuild the social responsibility that once underpinned British welfare, before the state centralised and undermined it.

Cameron's Sunday speech indicated that he and his team have seen not only what is wrong with Blair's public sector but the electoral advantage to be gained from correcting it. Giving responsibility back to society is one thing. Restoring the morale of local Tory parties and the institutions they once "owned" could hold the key to reviving a party still desperately in the provincial doldrums. The welfare state remains popular, and its defence is thus essential. But delivery has drifted too far from consumers and too close to Whitehall.

Giving the participants in British politics something creative to do - known elsewhere as local democracy - is now moving centre stage.