Change, or just complain?

David Cameron is not explaining is Big Society idea very clearly. He has lost the newspaperman who should have been able to get the message across.

Newspapers cannot get the message across because they, like their readers, live to complain.

Do we want our Government to be responsible for everything; to decide everything; to pay for everything?

If so, we will have to pay enough tax to allow the Government to pay for everything and put up with the fact that the Government decides everything.

China and Russia work like this.

We had one of these do-everything governments just after the last war. It nationalised all the major industries, which is now considered a bad thing. It also set up the National Health Service, which we still think is a brilliant thing.

Or do we want the Government to set the policy and be responsible for the things which apply to all of us in this country, but allow other bodies to decide on things which apply to all those in Halifax, or all those who follow a certain god?

You could then decide to live in Leeds because the council there runs a quango you could work for and finances terrific libraries, or live in Whitney where the council provides few services because its residents are fat cats and can afford to pay for their own.

We are very good at complaining. The Government is doing a rotten job. Our company is beastly. The bank is awful.

The newspapers know we like complaining and fuel our complaints.

We are bad at doing anything about our complaints. We tend to vote the same way we always have. We change jobs rarely. We change banks even less frequently.

But however much we complain about our lives here, we think the fate we face abroad would be even worse. Europe is terrifying. We like it when we are on holiday, but we don't want anyone in Europe deciding anything for us. We prefer our own rotten Government to do that.

We don't want any foreign company taking over our beastly British company. They might do things differently.

If we had more confidence, we could have a much more eclectic life.

We could have a European parliament deciding the broad policy and doing the things which apply to everyone in Europe; our own Government deciding and doing the things which apply to Britain, and our local councils, bodies and associations deciding and doing the things which apply to Gateshead.

The United States of America is a the original model for this. Washington decides which countries to invade; Texas decides what to do about Mexican insurgents.

A United States of Europe ought to be able to organise a more civilised version of that model.

That would give us many more targets for our complaints.

It would also give us the ability to sort out many of our complaints ourselves.