On Wednesday, Uscreates’ Mary Cook attended a conference on ‘Social Action’ held by the Conservative Party. Sayeeda Warsi’s (the Shadow Minister for Community Cohesion and Social Action) explanation of Social Action is that it ‘involves millions of people doing millions of things that make a real difference to their community every day. It is how we can all create social change within our society’.  The Conservatives’ aim is to embed Social Action into politics.

David Cameron, one of the speakers, was challenged on whether by placing an emphasis on Social Action the Conservatives were trying to replace the party’s social responsibilities with altruism.  In response he talked about the need to decentralise power, saying that politicians have to take a step down and the people on the street have to take a step up. 

It was an interesting day, especially to hear another party’s opinion on achieving social change.  There were good examples of social action projects across the country but also a lot of dated opinions from a party that is trying to create new politics.  For example, many councillors spoke of ‘serving the community’, when maybe this should be shifted to building capacity within our communities and enabling them to change.