Peter Oborne - he gets paid for this?

In the Daily Telegraph Peter Oborne declaims that Cameron’s plan to build the Big Society on the verge of collapse, and that this:

. . . would be a crushing blow to the Conservative Prime Minister. It could even signal the beginning of the end of his premiership. This is because Cameron’s Big Society goes right to the heart of everything he believes about government. It defines him as a man and a politician. Without the Big Society, he is rudderless.

Horse-shit. It means no more to Cameron than the "Third Way" meant to Blair - it is a PR catch-phrase that has failed to catch on and consequently will gradually disappear from Cameron's utterances. But for the sake of argument let us assume that there is something other than PR involved. In that case, says Oborne:

The big problem with Cameron’s idea is that it requires time. It means changing the culture of schools, hospitals, local government and the British people themselves. This will not take place overnight. The Big Society could not truly take root for a generation.

What an acute observation! That's only what Cameron and Nat, Lord Wei, the man entrusted with moving the project forward, have been saying for the last nine months. Clever of Oborne to notice that.

Not clever enough to observe that Cameron did not include Wei among the quota of paid government advisers, and that consequently Wei can only devote two days a week to what Oborne says defines Cameron as a man and a politician.

Tories traditionally distrust those "too clever by half". Oborne is safe from that damning judgment.