A lot can change in 30 years, including Margaret Thatcher's assertion that there is "no such thing as society" being replaced by David Cameron's promotion of 'big society'. But scratch the surface of prime ministerial statement and slogan and what we find is a rebranding and relabeling, yet open the can and the contents look remarkably similar. Essentially it is empty.
But the rebranding is clever. We have moved from matronly Thatcher to matey Cameron, and from a prime minister who was seen as cold, sharp, hard and steely to one who is warmer, softer and more cuddly. Yet the antecedents of current policy are similar, the rationale given is the same, and the consequences are likely to be replicated.
In the late 1970s the new Thatcher-led Conservative government had to respond to an economic crisis. Its roots were partly from years before when the oil producing countries hiked up their prices and when the International Monetary Fund drove a bargain which demanded big cuts in public expenditure. The monetarists were let loose and gave an intellectual foundation for a new rampant right-wing politics. Now take 2011.
April 1st 2011 "Almost 300 voluntary sector organisations are to be part of a massive national programme to tackle long term benefit dependency in what will be a massive boost to the Big Society, announced Employment Minister Chris Grayling today". Is this the boost that U.K needs to help them accept and be part of The "Big Society"? This shows that despite the cuts (which are at the front thought of everyone) there can be something good to work towards. Volunteering is never easy when money is so tight though maybe as a community and voluntary organisations this could make the experience worth while, and dare I say help us.
The Big Society is something that should be thought about because in theory it is a great idea to help communitues come together. Though with such a bad economic climate motivation is lacking so with help from Voluntary organisations, this could be that forward step needed to create that motivation. The people of Britain can't help but feel they are losing out with these cuts but why not try and get involved into the "Big Society". Just maybe this could benefit us more.
When the economy picks up and the spirit of Britain has risen to it's peak, we know that our community has also got it's high spirit.
twitter: Reform big society
This was launched April 1st so follow this for the lastest news and topics.
Read this for more info on the Reform of The "Big Society"
"What this is all about is giving people more power and control to improve their lives and communities."
"The Big Society is about changing the way our country is run. That's why the Big Society is here to stay." You can call it liberalism. You can call it empowerment. You can call it freedom. You can call it responsibility. I call it the Big Society”
David Cameron describing the "Big Society spirit" of a group of nurses:
"It's the spirit that I saw in a group of NHS maternity nurses in my own constituency, increasingly frustrated by the way they were managed and handled, who wanted to set up a co-op to use their own expertise, their ideas, their contacts to provide a better service for the mums in their area."
But here he intensifies that effort:
"Workers in our public sector have been bossed around to breaking point...We're giving nurses, doctors, teachers and police officers much more power over the work they do - scrapping the rules that held them back and giving them the chance to come together, form co-ops and take over the running of public services."
“We need a social recovery to mend the broken society – to me, that’s what the Big Society is all about,”
WHAT DO YOU THINK OF DAVID CAMERON’S ‘BIG SOCIETY’?
As I was browsing the web for a story that shows the Big Society with in April, and I found this local story of a local council dismissing the chance for the"Big Society" to take place. Toby Young wrote a piece for The Spectator and i feel that this would be interesting for you to read. To read click here
This shows that even those who want to be involved sometimes cannot due to what ever circumstances, though I believe that these people should be encouraged to get involved and not turned away.
The local Labour MP, Glenda Jackson – who might have welcomed her constituents’ initiative – has said this:
“volunteers could not cope with the complexity of running public libraries with no funding from councils.”
Make of that as you wish and maybe cash injections are needed but if the local council cannot provide then who will? Has the "Big Society" started to go weak at the knees.
Stay up to date with the Big Society news right here.
A documentary film being launched in Westminster today is calling on the Government to work with the Big Society.
The film, Big Society: A View From The Frontline, was commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation to give frontline managers and volunteers the opportunity to give their view of the Big Society.
Andrew Barnett, Gulbenkian Foundation director, said: "We have heard a lot from policy makers and thinkers about the Big Society but very little from those who are working on the ground and the beneficiaries of their work.
1. The general public feels that a number of state run services are ineffective, and poorly organized. Transferring these services to local groups and charities, may possibly make them more democratic.
2. Technically people can form a community, and volunteer to run these services which may well range from taking over a rural bus service to running a school. - Generating independence within a community- instead of dependency on the state.
3. Charities are also "tax free," which means all financial support is expelled from state taxation, and any earnings can in theory be funneled back into improving the service, based on the requirements of the community.
Three main disadvantages of a Big Society?
1. One main inconvenience is that financial support may depend on how well-off the community is who take over the present bus route or library, and how enthusiastic people are to volunteer to help run these services.
2. The UK has had no recent history of mass volunteerism, and numerous communities are in fact a mixture of new arrivals, migrant workers and short-term residents. Accustomed to a welfare state, and needing to produce money in one of the World's most costly countries- many people may not have the time to volunteer.
3. Free market economies put importance on on self dependence, rather than community dependence. A paradox where volunteerism is considered necessary to keep some services running, but at the same time these they could prolong in rivalry with private business- who profit from running a associated service.
The Big society project was one of Prime Minister David Cameron’s personal goals and had been outlined in the manifesto prior to the General Election. The Big Society was introduced as a way of empowering communities by nurturing a ‘’volunteerism’’ approach to drive forward ‘’people power’’. The Government had pridicted the scheme would invigorate the running of post offices, libraries, transport systems and housing projects. Four areas were chosen to be pilots, but Liverpool city council has already withdrawn, classifying the proposal ‘’a big con’’.
Sarah Veale, head of the TUC’s equality and employment rights department, told a seminar held by the Economic and Social Research Council looking into Fairness during Fiscal Austerity that the general aim of the scheme was a “good idea”, but not throughout the existing economic climate. She said, “Women will struggle to cope with part-time low paid jobs, doing unpaid work in the home and the community as well”. She added women would make every effort to assist in certain situations where public financial support had been removed, such as the running of a youth club, because they would be aware it was benefitting their children so they would put in the personal effort to maintain such a venture obtainable.
She notified the strain of cuts on parents will “filter down” to children.
Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, outgoing director of the charity, Community Services Volunteers, argued the cuts have ''destroyed'' the voluntary sector. She said there was no ''strategic plan''.
Many women will suffer because the consequences of the cuts will result in over-qualified people taking on unskilled jobs therefore leaving women with skills and little qualifications with no jobs.
The big society scheme isn’t going in David Cameron’s favor. It seems as though the rich, will just get richer and the poor get poorer!
1. Give communities more powers
ƒ We will radically reform the planning system to give neighbourhoods far more ability to determine the shape of the places in which their inhabitants live. ƒ We will introduce new powers to help communities save local facilities and services threatened with closure, and give communities the right to bid to take over local state-run services. ƒ We will train a new generation of community organisers and support the creation of neighbourhood groups across the UK, especially in the most deprived areas.
Give the community more power, or exploit the community with all their power?
Why should we do a job (that people get a good salary for) for free?
Deprived areas? They are indicating that some areas get more treatment than others creating a social gap?
2. Encourage people to take an active role in their communities
ƒ We will take a range of measures to encourage volunteering and involvement in social action, including launching a national ‘Big Society Day’ and making regular community involvement a key element of civil service staff appraisals. ƒ We will take a range of measures to encourage charitable giving and philanthropy. ƒ We will introduce a National Citizen Service. The initial flagship project will provide a programme for 16 year olds to give them a chance to develop the skills needed to be active and responsible citizens, mix with people from different backgrounds, and start getting involved in their communities.
Encourage what people to get involved? People who are unemployed and feel let down by their government? or people who have full time jobs and have a lot of their time to other commitments? Maybe the younger generation who need to be encouraged to join full time education? Well I hope all of the above!
The term Charitable from this sounds a little fake! Why are we paying large amounts of tax and doing charity to hide the fact that what David Cameron and the Conservative party promised not to change certain and went ahead and did anyway. Thanks for the trust David!
The younger generation should be encouraged to go to school and learn to become good citizens and handle life as an adult. Maybe plan their future rather than just doing donkey work to fill the holes created by the government. Also what skills are they talking about?
3. Transfer power from central to local government
ƒ We will promote the radical devolution of power and greater financial autonomy to local government, including a full review of local government finance. ƒ We will give councils a general power of competence. ƒ We will abolish Regional Spatial Strategies and return decision-making powers on housing and planning to local councils.
This sounds like a step in the right direction and maybe we can be saved by this idea after all! or not. Maybe we can trust our local councils to think of us and maybe not be in a battle with other local community's to be the best. We could as a community share our success with others so we become a better society? what can i say this sounds promising. Well lets move on.
4. Support co-ops, mutuals, charities and social enterprises
ƒ We will support the creation and expansion of mutuals, co-operatives, charities and social enterprises, and support these groups to have much greater involvement in the running of public services. ƒ We will give public sector workers a new right to form employee-owned cooperatives and bid to take over the services they deliver. This will empower millions of public sector workers to become their own boss and help them to deliver better services. ƒ We will use funds from dormant bank accounts to establish a Big Society Bank, which will provide new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other nongovernmental bodies.
This is explained in my other Blog about savers being made to pay.
5. Publish government data
ƒ We will create a new ‘right to data’ so that government-held datasets can be requested and used by the public, and then published on a regular basis. ƒ We will oblige the police to publish detailed local crime data statistics every month, so the public can get proper information about crime in their neighbourhoods and hold the police to account for their performance.
This last point is very positive, I cannot argue with this but i want to hear is what you think of these five points and weather you think i am being fair or not.
"The analysis, by consultants Consulting Inplace, comes as a leading bishop suggested the idea of the big society was little more than a cover for cuts."
This was taken by The Guardian, exposing what the big society really is.
"The Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev John Pritchard, said community groups in deprived areas would be less likely to take up the big society agenda if they were struggling to cope with slashed funding."
So how can this idea of a better communities happen in circumstances such as the economic state that we are in? This is interesting because we can now see that The Big Society is hiding something behind the high positives of a better future for British society.
Would they be distracting us from the cuts to give them more of a chance to raise or add some stupid tax? I cant see this working even though it sounds like it is in our best interest.
"Socially responsible" savers could be encouraged to put their money into "big society" ISAs under plans being announced to show how the money will be found to fund David Cameron's vision of a volunteering renaissance.
"The Cabinet Office is publishing plans to attract capital into the social investment market, including £400m from dormant bank accounts and – eventually – further sums from individuals and institutions like pension funds that might be prepared to invest routinely in social enterprise."
This is an extract taken from The Guardian again and this shows another way of the Tories getting their dirty hands into our pockets. I am sure more schemes are on the way to give them an excuse to take more money. Greed is always the goal in Capitalism.
I feel that the idea in theory and in practice but brought in at a bad time when we as a society are at our most vulnerable.
The Big Society was the flagship policy idea of the 2010 UK Conservative Party general election proposal. It presently forms part of the legislative programme of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition contract.The plan is to produce a climate that empowers local citizens and communities, building a big society that will seize authority away from politicians and award it to people. The declared main concerns are to give communities more authority and encourage citizens to take an active role in their communities (voluntary work)
It is supported by a Big Society Network, which says it exists to produce, develop and showcase innovative ideas to facilitate citizens to come as one in their neighborhoods to do good things.
