The Big Society: a cloak for the small state

[marmar]

from the Independent UK:




Ed Miliband: The Big Society: a cloak for the small state
Two leading backers of David Cameron's flagship idea have lost faith in it. We are seeing the recontamination of the Tory brand

Sunday, 13 February 2011


On Friday, I was in Exeter, where I met a woman who had been helped by a charity tackling domestic violence. She asked me to take a message back to David Cameron. "We are not just numbers on a piece of paper," she said. "We are real people."

She was among a group of women from every part of Exeter society – working in areas from housing to Sure Start – expressing anguish about what they saw happening to what they had worked so hard to build. Such sentiments are being echoed in every corner of our country. Having raised some people's hopes that he was a genuine believer in social justice, the Prime Minister is creating despair.

Last week we saw his big idea, the Big Society, exposed. When I asked him about it in the House of Commons, Mr Cameron blustered on about how everyone should support "volunteering and philanthropic giving". Indeed we do. And Labour took important steps to support both the charitable sector and volunteering during our time in office. But no one can volunteer at a library or a Sure Start centre if it's being closed down. And nor can this Conservative-led government build a Big Society while simultaneously undermining its foundations with billions of pounds worth of cuts to the voluntary sector. Those are not merely numbers on a piece of paper; they affect real people.

But the reason why Mr Cameron's Big Society is in such trouble is not simply because the Government is making painful cuts. The way it is doing it – so far, so fast – speaks to its ideological heart. It really believes that a small state will produce a Big Society. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/ed-miliband-the-big-society-a-cloak-for-the-small-state-2213011.html

[LeftishBrit]

1. Kick!

Excellent article by, I very much hope, our next Prime Minister.

Though Cameron talks out of both sides of his mouth - as well as quite often out of another orifice! - there are quite a number of Tories who don't disguise their ideological longing for a small state. Here's an article by Tim Montgomerie, a nasty and influential Tory writer and website owner, from before the election:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/5008047/A-strong-family-and-small-state-ought-to-go-hand-in-hand.html