Just what is this Big Society? One big meaningless con. Spin and guff from David Cameron. Kinda reminds me of when Andy Burnham goes on about aspirational Socialism, always pleased with himself when he has the chance to say something that on a superficial level screams left when in reality is establishment safe…But sorry, I digress, forgive me as I just wanted to vent my own spleen over contender Burnham. So back to the big question, just what is this Big Society? I kinda really like this interpretation from Twitter (Simon Mills), “#BigSociety is a neoliberal hallicinogen. It induces delusions of social cohesion but is really a gateway drug for privatization”… Hallicinogens, delusions and privatisation. I like it. Shock and awe.
But let’s hear from the big man with a plan himself….
“The big society … is about liberation – the biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power from elites in Whitehall to the man and woman on the street,”
“A “big society” bank will be established to finance charities and voluntary groups. This will be funded using “every penny of dormant bank and building society account money allocated to England”,
“It is not a cover for anything. I was talking about the “big society” and encouraging volunteering, encouraging social enterprises and voluntary groups to do more to make our society stronger. I was talking about that way before we had a problem with cuts and deficits and all the rest of it”.
“It has turned able, capable individuals into passive recipients of state help with little hope for a better future. It has turned lively communities into dull, soulless clones of one another. So we need to turn government completely on its head.”
Cameron also wants your cash…. Funds stuck in dormant bank accounts to enable charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to take over the running of public services…the Big Society Bank…An estimated £500 million lies dormant in bank and building society accounts, and another £435 million in National Savings and Insurance. And before anyone gets their paws on the cash the Treasury has to establish a “Reclaim Fund” tracking down the savers with dormant accounts. How’s about creating a “Reclaim Fund”…. from the banks?
Here’s a simple yet big idea, how’s about funding the public sector and the welfare state rather than cutting it to the bone? These plans are just so bizarre; firstly where’s the accountability and transparency? How will these volunteers be chosen? These proposals have a real hideous nasty whiff nay stench of the Victorian. This is about privatising public services.
As far as the guff itself coming from Cameron, were Messrs Brown and Clegg treated to a whiff when all three were on telly in the Spring? It is so vacuous it is difficult what to say about it other than Cameron is indulging in his personal right wing fantasy while being the leader of a party with a minority of the votes and without a majority in Parliament without the snivelling support of the LibDems.
Here’s a tip Dave…pay people to do the jobs that need doing and take the money to pay them with from your banksta pals! Surely they would be pleased to “volunteer” their surplus cash!
Links: Great minds think alike (tee hee!)
Eventually something has got to give because people can’t live on thin air.
I kind of think that members of the mouthy, right-wing, opinionated middle classes will be organising the “volunteers” – probably shanghaied from the ranks of the long-term unemployed – to do thing that pre-Cameron they would have got paid a wage for doing while, post-Cameron, they are expected to do the work for no wages in order to avoid swinging cuts in benefits and to feel good about being treated like this because it makes them feel “useful” and as if they are making a “contribution”!
Of course, in point of fact, the “Big Society” is rather like Tony Blair’s “Third Way”: a completely meaningless indefinable pile of nebulous, unadulterated and unworkable crap, without rhyme or reason, destined to crash and burn without helping anyone or anybody.
Rubbish.
[...] been some interesting posts around about the launch of the Big Society, from Harpy Marx and Anna Raccoon’s pieces on how it’s all to be funded, to the typically naive optimism [...]