Beneath the veneer of the Conservatives' people power

What these slick PR operators are really offering is deep cuts, lower taxes for the rich and sweeping Thatcherite privatisation

David Cameron's Conservatives are nothing if not accomplished PR professionals. And the Big Society theme running through today's manifesto launch is a brilliant presentational sleight of hand, which takes their political cross-dressing to new heights.

To hear Cameron and Hague carrying on this morning about people taking "collective" control of their own lives, the right to recall MPs, set up their own schools, elect police commissioners and create co-ops in the public sector, you could almost imagine the Tories had leap-frogged over Labour into Hugo Chavez land.

By any measure, it's a clever political branding exercise, which recognises the progressive political climate and gives a "people power" veneer to what — once you strip away the rhetoric and mood music — is in reality a classic Thatcherite anti-state programme for sweeping privatisation.

Who, after all, isn't frustrated by the corporate managerialism of public services and wouldn't be attracted by greater democratic involvement in how they're delivered (even if some balk, Oscar Wilde-style, at the committee meetings)? It's a seam Labour could have successfully mined for its own campaign if it had been a bit braver.

But look at the small print and the prospect of popular control turns out to be a mirage. Take "free" schools. It's not just that they'll be a marginal gimmick for better-off parents with sharp elbows to snaffle shrinking resources.

Through joint ventures and corporate chain sponsorship, they are also clearly intended to be part of a much wider privatisation of education — for profit, as Michael Gove made clear over the weekend. That will mean less control of schools and the curriculum for most parents than they have now.

Something similar applies to public sector co-ops – not a proposal the Tories are making for the private sector, of course, where they would have a hugely positive impact. And when it comes to MPs' recall, it turns out to be restricted to cases of "proven wrongdoing", rather than when electors simply demand a new representative.

For the rest, there were no significant new pledges today, no clarity on the cuts Cameron and George Osborne have already made clear will be faster and deeper than Labour's. Instead, the phoney war on national insurance was at full tilt and the commitment to concentrate the biggest tax giveaways (through raising the inheritance tax threshold to £1m) on the richest families in the country unswerving.

As in 1979, the 2010 Conservative manifesto has left out the most far-reaching changes a Tory government is likely to make. From what we know so far, those look to be the deepest spending cuts since the 1930s, lower taxes on the wealthy and the mass privatisation of public services.

Seumas Milne @'The Guardian'