David Miliband in the Guardian today, speaking about the need for people to engage more in their local community.

Its actually quite a good article and David Miliband is clearly one of the more insightful and thoughtful cabinet ministers. I met him a couple of times while working for the TUC in the North East - and while his politics clearly differ from mine on lots of issues, there is no doubting he's a pretty capable bloke.

That said, I'm sceptical about some of the thinking underpinning 'new localism'.

One of the clear barriers to more people getting engaged in their local communities is the increasing amount of time they have to spend work.

The TUC has just published research covering this problem, and exposing some of the myths around working time that the CBI and others like to peddle to justify UK workers putting in more hours than most of their counterparts across Europe.

Its clear that at the bottom end of the wages scale long hours are the only way that many people can bring home a half decent pay-packet; at the other end, corporate culture generally means that those working long hours are seen as more 'committed' and somehow more productive.

I'm also sceptical about what added value the 'business class' can bring to 'local coalitions' - another point picked up in the article. While I can see that there are lots of private sector firms who'd gladly help deliver local public services or infrastructure projects, I'm pretty sure that these are more likely to be driven by profit than a Victorianesque notion of wider civic duty.

Maybe I'm being too cynical, but its hard to see the likes of Jarvis, Capita et al, queueing up to do good works in exchange for little more than a brass plaque and a few words of thanks in the local paper!