The Big Society
Be in no doubt, Dave's Big Society is no vacuous piece of hot air, to be dismissed as meaningless twaddle by Labour's yesterday men . Throughout the land the printing presses at Town Halls are churning out glossy brochures, complete with 'how-to' guides for citizens who want to work for nothing.. And the first 'schools' for Social Entrepreneurs are signing up those with a passion for turning a penny from the free labour of others.
The Hampshire School for Social Entrepreneurs is offering a one year course, enabling people to set up businesses with a social purpose?
What's does it mean?
Critics say:
......it is merely an attempt to hand state-financed services to the private sector and a cynical "cover" for spending cuts.
Farming out services will cost the Government vast amounts and they will still act as the managing contrator, secondly, the Cuts would occur, whether or not, Mr Cameron got passionate about the Big Society.
Apart from subsidizing co-ordinating sub-contrators, substantial costs will be incurred by training the first 500 organisers, £80,000 a piece over four years, plus the fee (unknown millions) to the training organisation, a so-called 'social action trust' called Locality.
The architects tell us.....
The Big Society means injecting some oomph into communities, fueled by citizens with a passion for volunteering.
It means empowering citizens by engaging them in decision making at a local level.
It means encouraging active citizenship, parish pump politics, ie. citizen groups running post offices, libraries, transport services and shaping housing projects.
It means giving people the right to veto council tax rises and for new providers to be able to set up so-called "free schools" in the state sector.
It means setting up a National Citizenship Service for 16-year olds
The aim is
"to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will 'take power away from politicians and give it to people'."
This quote is a clarifying statement from No. 10 but there still appears to be some confusion in the land. Marks and Spencers have responded by issuing a larger sizes range of clothing for children. And bonkers Boris the London Mayor thinks it's a scheme of support for pompous fat heads like him.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping
The more you read about the Big Society the more you sense that no one really has a grasp of what it means but everyone involved espouses much hope. Nat Wei, Executive Chairman, The Big Society Network, is full of hope, well he would be, he's a social activist.
Nat's blog, tells us:
"There will always be a part of the big society which will remain mysterious and yet also enticing – like life itself."
Are we getting the feeling that Nat is a bit of a nut job. There's nothing mysterious about someone who has been thrown out of work, struggling financially and seeking help from voluntary services that have disappeared due to cut backs by local councils.
At some moment in his life, Nat got the calling - we can only speculate who was on the other end of the line. In truth, Nat doesn't know what the Big Society is either, he can only talk about what it might be.
It might be a new politics, with cooperation and mutualism at its core, as outlined by Red Tory Phillip Blond. It might be a smoke screen to cover cuts in public services, well that's what Ed Miliband thinks anyway and nobody cares what he thinks. It might a romanticist fantasy, harking back to an age of missed opportunities in the 19th Century. It might be a very dangerous social experiment, complete with a national youth movement full of zionist frenzy - we are not trying to worry you.
Public Service Ethos
We don't have a clue what this means but as a notion it's central to your grasp of the Big Society idea. Imagine a morally heightened collective state of mental awareness in which operatives choose to work for nothing in public service and survive on the succour and warmth derived from contributing to some mythical greater good.
Social engineers, sorry, entrepreneurs to the fore
Nat Wei is a new species, he is a social entrepreneur and Dave has gifted him the role of chief ideologue of the Big Society. Nat is now also the youngest peer of the realm at 33, Lord Wei of Shoreditch, courtesy of Dave.
In his maiden speech in the Lords, he had this to say about the Big Society, Nat likened it to a coral reef, saying: the fish of "the local citizen groups extend, vivify and shape this landscape".
Is it a religion?
Well, there is a element of religiosity in the language that its acolytes are using. For instance, they quote Gandhi:
"We must be the change we want to see in the world”
Suitably nebulous and esoteric to serve as a rallying cry for those eager to participate in some kind of blind date, organised by a national network of 5000 'co-ordinators' hopefully Cilla Black will not be included.
David Cameron, says the Big Society is an opportunity to ‘fill an enormous spiritual and social hole in our country’. He also hopes that the Big Society will restore people's faith in politics. Say what you like about Dave but don't suggest he has no imagination or inventiveness; but he should have said "enormous spiritual holes and faith in politics?"
Call Me Dave should be aware that most people are more concerned about the pot holes , and without public liability insurance we suggest that citizens do not attempt to do any filling. We do understand that the Government has a plan to enable voluntary groups to purchase cheap insurance cover (£10 - £15) in the near future so that road repairs can get underway, before the snow comes again. And yes, on the question of snow clearance, you also require public liability cover for that as well - not covered by your pot hole filling insurance policy - sorry.
Is it a piece of furniture?
Well, actually the Big Society has been described as a chair, wait for it, with four legs; Government, citizens, business and voluntary sector. You can find more such gems on the Big Society website, where you can also discover some of the 'chippies' behind the idea.
End note
Dave's big idea is to replace New Labour's Big Government with the Big Society, in which citizens, i.e. social activists transform the the coral reef of life, i.e. like fish do apparently.
If you would like to become an active fish, we suggest you move house. The following locations is where the actions at:
- Cumbria: relocating community centre, building renewable energy project, community buyout of pub, spreading broadband access
- Windsor and Maidenhead: public say over local spending decisions including parks budgets, further powers to parish councils
- Liverpool: increased volunteering at museums, developing neighbourhood media and digital content
- Sutton: working on sustainable transport services, developing youth projects, creating "green living" champions
Update Feb 2011
Liverpool pulls out of scheme due to severity of the Cuts.
Privatizing every orifice of social life
Now, sit back and watch those social entrepreneurs scoop the pool. Thatcher privatized the social infrastructure and industry, now Dave's here to finish the job - by privatizing every orifice of social life.
Call Me Dave's 'Big Society' is in fact Bullingdon Club code for a return to an 18th Century world of exclusivity, fine dining, fox hunting and cricket. In fact, the 'Big Society' is the very opposite of what it sounds like, it's a very small society of wealth, privilege, noblesse oblige, droit de seigneur, Jus primae noctis and other borrowings from the days of dragons, knight-errantry and annual peasant culls.
The 'Big Society' is all about self-help and Samuel Smiles. Smiles told his readers, "God helps those who help themselves" and self-help is "the true source of national vigour and strength". In Sam's world, State help weakens individual effort and thereby weakens the whole of the big society. Add in a dose of Adam Smith's self regulating market efficiency to a meal of individual self-interested rational behaviour and there you have it: the recipe for the Big 'bang' Society.
The financial de-regulation of the 1980s was a precursor to Dave's Bigger Bang; total de-regulation of the whole of society.
Be in no doubt, Thatcher's Tory boys laid the historical groundwork for Dave's Bullingdon boys. The privatisation of Britain plc, begun under the Thatcher interregnum, will continue apace during the reign of Dave.
Thatcher put an end to ideas, put an end to the idea of struggle between owners and workers; she destroyed the industrial base of that struggle. The ships could be built in Taiwan, the coal dug in Mexico, the cars made in Japan and the steel in India. In services like transport and communications, out-sourcing wasn't possible, so they were broken into pieces; the gas, electricity and water supplied by foreigners.
Hard to wage a class struggle against a State that's divested itself of responsibility for producing and managing anything; except the behaviour of its citizens.
Dave does not have to worry about trades unions either, where they exist, they now barter for shells and trinkets like natives welcoming Captain Cook ashore.
So it's full steam ahead Captain Dave, sleeves rolled up and ready for action. Free up the markets, trust the markets. Let the food industry force feed children with its filthy muck, cunningly disguised in nice wrappers, unregulated. Where no natural market exists, create a market; make GPs fund holders, remove oversight, make hospitals hustle for business, turn patients into consumers. And if the local school roof is leaking, let the parents' put their hands in their pockets, there'll find a wide range of buckets at Dave's DIY World.
