spending cuts put tories "big society at risk"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12378974

The government's spending cuts are "destroying" volunteering and undermining its "big society" vision, the head of a leading charity has said.

Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, who is retiring from the Community Service Volunteers (CSV) after 36 years, said there was no "strategic plan".

She told the Times the "massive" council cuts would make it harder for people to do more in their communities.

Ministers insist they are creating new sources of funds for voluntary groups.

The government has said it will be investing £470m over the next four years in charities and voluntary groups to give them independence from state money.

But Dame Elisabeth told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The cuts that are being imposed on local government and the health service are taking place now.

"So there are a lot of very worthwhile programmes - for example volunteers working in child protection as promoted by the minister for children - which are now under threat of closure."


This must be all very worrying for Mr Cameron who seems to strongly believe in this big society rubbish he seems to spurt alot. Does anyone actually truely know what it means really ?

Lets face facts the article above from the BBC excellently outlines how this cannot work and will turn out to be a big fad. People who have jobs cannot give up their time to volunteer where public services have been taken away. Its a con and a smokescreen to mask the fact key local public services are being scrapped or sold off. I have seen through this idea right from the start. Now spending cuts are starting to hit so is everybody else. I would love to see a survey of how many people understand what the "big society" is and if they are in favour of it ?. The fact of the matter as the article above also explains the charitable sector and voluntary sector often called the 3rd sector have been covering a lot of what this "big society" is meant to be for years. organisations like the Citizens advice bureau. have been offering these services for years and years. Why put these excellent organisations at risk by cutting their funding and then say we still want the services but you'll have to find the money from somewhere else. Where do David Cameron and his pals down at Tory HQ expect these charities to find the money from in this day and age ?

Hugely out of touch i might suggest.

Is a government nudge a nudge too far ?

reading this article in todays independant
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nudge-nudge-wink-wink-how-the-government-wants-to-change-the-way-we-think-2174655.html

it suggests more from what i was blogging about earlier in the week about the government wanting to control/push you in the direction they like you to go.

To me this seems like the government and not much ahs been said on this so far but i'm sure someone will grab hold of this and tell them to back off eventually. I'm surprised mor true conservative people havent been up in arms about this who usually regard a government to stay out of their own business and how they run their lives.

But no, Is it because it is David Cameron coming out and saying all this that they are unsure of what to make of it. Or is it their love child David Cameron the only person who has been able to modernise the conservative party for a good decade or so and by putting waht he says down they could end up in a tricky situation again.

All in all whether this be friendly advice or actual policy and turns into law it is all very concerning a lot of this nudge language that is being used i feel.

I feel the governemnt will be stepping on a lot of peoples toes with these new ideas and trying to involve themselves in our lives even more. From a government who said they wanted to give us more control on what goes on this seems to be going against all that talk. But hey when your breaking promises left right and centre what's another one going to matter ay ?

Just wonder what people think of these plans of this big society and the way we think being altered by this government. should we listen or should we ignore them ?

More big society ideas encouraging us to donate more to charities

So the latest idea from the tories and their big society idea which i'm still convinced is a big smokescreen for these massive savage cuts they are putting through at the moment is this idea of when people go to pay for things or take cash out of a cash machine with their card they will be asked if they wish to donate moeny to charity.

This is another barmy idea from the government while they are cutting funding to charitiesand the 3rd sector of voluntary work they are then saying well joe public can fill the gap by donating more. This is all veryw ell well not really but it would be if people had more disposable money to give away. This is simply not the case when people are loosing jobs every week and are finding themselves shorter and shorter in terms of money.

I just think this big society idea is all badly thought out and badly timed. It is insensitive to charities to remove their funding in a tough time like this and also nudge people as they call it in to donating more money to charity in what is probably one of the worst economic crisis ever witnessed in the wester world. It is complete maddness.

People are not afraid to donate to charity but only when they can afford such donations.

My suggestion would be if the toriesa are so obsessed with people donating more money to charity then they should use some of their millions they sit on and donate some of that to charity.

Making the rich spread some of their wealth around would bea fairer idea to me. It is just not on that the rich tories get to tell us what we should be doing with our money when they lord up their millions and tell us what to do with ours.

Just another fail from the out of touch tory lead coalition government i'm afraid.

The fair society

So we all know about David Camerons "big society"

He has been banging on about this idea since before the general election which let me tell you is nothing new really

The big society let me describe quickly is the idea of giving power back to the people, allowing people to volunteer and work and unpaid wage and do more for others. I do however feel this is a huge smokescreen to the biggest attack on the welfare state since well ... ever i think.

While people are loosing jobs left right and centre we are being asked by David cameron who has probably never volunteered in his life for us to do more in our communities and volunteer more, for less.

In this modern day Britain we are very time poor and have little time to even stop and think let alone stop and help out by putting something back into your community.

Let me state the idea in principle is not a bad idea but the back drop to how he is implimenting his ideas is all wrong. Sure it would be nice if we all acted more of a community and helped out others more. This is a very good thing but the way Cameron is going about the cuts to public services which would in my view do a very similar job is a big smokescreen in my eyes.

So i propose a fair society, my idea stems from a similar logic, but has one main difference, it is and will be fair for all.

Firstly i would reign in the banks hold them to account for the mess they have brought us. I would consider nationalising them to gain back our money which we lent them to save them. Once we would be in control of the banks in public ownership they would have no choice but to start lending and lending money back to the people who helped them out in the first place.

This would be my first plan. I would then offer fair alternatives to the savage spending cuts going on in the public sector right now. They are wrong and are not nessesary or unavoidable according to the prime minister. The public sector did not create the financial crisis, the disabled didnt create the financial crisis the young and elderly didnt create the financial crisis eitehr.

So why should they be the ones to suffer the most. I should mention a lot more other groups of people including women and low income families will also suffer too.

I believe the big society is not a bad idea in principle and i'm not just opposing its creation just because a tory came up with it. But the way it is being implimented is all wrong and badly orchestrated. Perhaps the timing is wrong, perhaps if we were not in a big financial mess the idea would sit better with people, But when people are loosing jobs the last thing they want to hear is they can do some work for nothing when they have a mortgage to pay and children to feed.

I think we need to look for a more fairer society where the rich wealthy tax dodgers are clamped down on and the banks are not allowed to get away with almost anything. We must stop this ridiculous big bonus culture that has not stopped even through the recession i might add. How a banker and a broker can be worth giving that sort of bonus to on top of a salary for essentially risking huge amounts of our money is incomprehendable to me.

Its like rewarding risk taking, yes its ok if it comes off but what if it doesnt, its our money they are playing with and we should hold them accountable.

People in the media and teh tory party warn us if we regulate the banks and tax them too much they will just up sticks and leave. Well to me, even though i bank with a bank i dont feel this threat is worth worrying about. This may sound nieve but there will always be other banks ready to take the ones who want to leave. Who knows they might be a lot more fairer and a lot better at their jobof holding our money and not taking risks.

I suggest we take a look at cooperative banks and institutions and having part public part private ownership of the banks to always keep them in check.

This is my first part of the fair society idea and outlines some of my feelings on the financial crisis we face right now.