I thought it was a bit off of David Cameron to try to purloin the Pope’s UK visit (once it was clearly going to be deemed a success) in support of his ‘Big Society’ plan.
But triumphant though the Papal visit was, and impressive though his speeches were, I am still no clearer as to what Cameron’s Big Society is all about. My instinct tells me it is somewhere between old-fashioned Tory paternalism, philanthropy, and volunteering. But I can’t be sure.
Of all the things he said in the run-up to the election, it is about the only one that has stuck as part of the political debate and the political consciousness. Can anyone remember any other? But I still don’t really know what he means. I’m not saying that because I am tribal Labour, and not very fond of Tories, particularly when they are implementing unfair and non-progressive Budgets whilst claiming they are fair and progressive. I am saying it because I have read and heard what he has to say on it – Big Society ought to be his specialist subject by now – and I am really none the wiser.
As Nick Clegg enjoys the limelight this week, and as Labour prepare to announce a new leader next week, Cameron will be working on his own conference speech for the week after that. I really hope that he uses it to explain what he means by the Big Society, and how it translates to government policy. But I sense he is just as confused as I am.
Up in Newcastle for the Great North Run, I met a man who run’s a voluntary sector organisation that helps provide services for deprived and vulnerable children. He fears the impact of the planned cuts in public expenditure. But more than that, he is sure that if these children are denied the support they need now, they will end up costing the State a great deal more in the future. He worries that Big Society is short-term cover for the cuts needed to deliver a smaller state. But that the long-term problems it causes will see the State having to deal with more and bigger problems once the impact of the cuts has been fully felt.
Everything Cameron has done is absolute short-termism, at best. For example, I recall in the televised debates, how his plan to get more people working, was laughably, to put more people through University. How making savage cuts to the public sector, which where I live is the biggest employer, and then cuts to university places is achieving this, I have no idea.
Of course to come out of a recession, where businesses should be encouraged to grow, we’re now facing a far worse and uncertain future than could have ever been imagined in anyone’s worst nightmare of Labour. Cameron is a liar and a moron, and I fear for my beautiful country under him.
-Michael
I have so much to say on this topic that I don’t know whre to start….apart from that I could weep when I see the real effects that these cuts are having. Public service organisations are planning now for the budget cuts, and this is what I am seeing personally, even before the results of the spending review….
a) today at my school we had a FT teacher and TA off sick, and another TA on jury service. In such a small school, it is a nightmare. These gaps in the staffing were covered by just ONE other TA, who was taken away from the kids she should have been with, to cover for the absent staff. That, despite a brilliant supply teacher being around to cover if “needed”(moi!) This is panic planning and it is already becoming the norm again for schools. And there is nothing wrong at all with the TA who was covering, she is quite brilliant. But there is everything wrong with her being expected to cover for a FT teacher AND a TA at the same time .
b) Organisations from the police to social services to schools to local authorities are just not replacing staff who leave. Sounds sensible in a way. But no thought is being given to the roles that they do. There seems to be little or no strategic planning – if someone is choosing to go there is a huge sigh of relief, but no thought as to what that actually person did and how their role can be filled.
If what I am seeing in my area is replicated, public service provision will soon be based around who just happened to leave at the right time, who happened to stay and who can double up to fulfil at least two roles.
c) Dedicated proffesionals are going weird. Police intelligence officers (the ones who are meant to prevent disorder) are actually now hoping that things “kick off a little bit” so that they can justify their jobs being kept as a uniformed role, as opposed to being a “surplus requirement.”
d) Social services provision for children, youth, and adults with special needs are being merged. Stupid and cruel beyond measure.
It is not just the money that all of these cuts will cost instead of save in the long term. It is the emotional cost to people and communities that will also be so cripplingly damaging.
So when Nick Clegg suggests that the Liberals should “enjoy” being in power, I fervantly suggest him to re-think his terminology. Enjoy this? No, Nick. Nobody else is, and you bloody well shouldn’t be.
Welcome to the Big Society.
I know we don’t know exactly what cuts are going to be made, but it really does worry me that they may cut Child Benefit or stop it all together when your children are still at a young age. When times are hard and your really struggling Child Benefit really is a lifeline. They really will be callous vile people if they do.
He’s got no more idea than you or I, its PR bollocks.
put the wig on the defendant and i will show you a judge
I’ve always thought Labour got the short straw in having its party conference before the Tories, giving them the crucial last word and setting the tone for months to come. In an election year, it can provide an even more potent propaganda advantage.
We may not be having an election, but these are critical times and public opinion could influence the survival of the coalition. How galling it is, therefore, that the Labour conference is sandwiched between the Tory and Lib Dem conferences.
Hope there will be a huge event and second major speech by the new Labour leader in the week after all the conferences.
Am I the only one who thinks ‘Care in the Community’ every time ‘Big Society’ is mentioned……?
the big society is just a lot of nonsense, nobody knows what he’s banging on about, just like that silly word progressive , so Alastair please stop going on about progressive it’s a meaningless silly word being used by all politicians.
Obviously, Cameron is using the term ‘Big Society’ in a disingenuous way; the term serves to overtly distance himself/the Tories from Thatcher’s belief that ‘there is no such thing as society’… However, covertly, Cameron isn’t more than a stone’s throw away from Thatcher’s philosophy; and, therefore, the use of ‘Big Society’ in Tory rhetoric is simultaneously: cynical; dishonest; cruel, and a bloody bad joke…
Cameron (and his valet, Clegg) have told us that the cuts are unavoidable; and his explanations/justifications for these oscillate between the ‘legacy of the last government’ (that’s your crew, Ali..) and the ‘mis-management of the financial institutions’ (aka sheer incompetence and greed).
However, it has always been Tory policy to roll back the State; they are just employing different ‘rationales’ and excuses to do so.
During the election (how long ago that seems), Mandelson quipped that the New Labour manifesto was ‘Blair plus’. Well, the Tory policy on cuts in the Public Sector etc is nothing less than ‘Thatcher plus’…
I have a: hard-earned BA (Hons); DipSW; MA; and shed-loads of experience in, and enthusiasm for, my NHS job that I can see will be going, going, gone.. (to be replaced by what..?). When I hear Cameron speak in those insincere terms of the ‘Big Society’ with its connotations of altruism and social justice, I feel nauseous…
Fasten your seatbelts, darlings, we’re in for a hell of a bumpy ride.. That is, of course, if you can still afford to run your car……………
Im somewhat surprised Mr Campbell that you understand Society at all, 13 years of your mates made us a great society didnt it
Even before the financial crisis social democracy was becoming unaffordable. And now the economic model of New Labour is broken.
The battle line has been between strong state v. liberty plus localism. But all have believed in market economy to provide the money for redistribution. But active government is needed so that market economy works well. Maximizing market freedom is not the best way to create wealth.
Anthony Crosland believed that strong growth would create tax revenues for the welfare state. He also thought that the costs of maintaining the NHS would decline.
The public services are sometimes inefficient.
And health, education and social security costs are rising faster than national income. Rich people demand more and better services.
This is not sustainable in the long-term.
So we need a somewhat smaller, but active state.
Labour must engage with Big Society vision, but on its own terms. State must work together with charitable and voluntary sector. Labour must reclaim mutualism.
David Cameron´s Big Society is a flawed iniative. It means that citizens, local communities, volunteer groups and philanthropists take tasks from central government.
Labour must improve this idea and rediscover its Labour origins.
Just watching reaction to the Government borrowing figures being higher than expected.
Smiling excited commentators licking their lips about all the blood when the Tory/LibDem progressive partnership get their economic knives out.
So who’ll be the first Christians being fed to the hungriest lions?
Big Society = Inclusive. You can be very myopic, but thinking about it, New Labour was never inclusive, was it? Inclusive of the middle classses (c.f. tax credits for £50k+ earners) yes. Inclusive of celebs, yes. Sucking up to the City, yes. But not interested in the unwaged or pensioners, who were powerless.
You certainly iunderstood what “sharp elbows” meant and encouraged their owners,
I wonder if Nick Clegg’s speech was written/agreed by David Cameron? It did sound as if it was written by a Tory! He is either a Tory puppet or already joined the Tory party in secret.
agree with others here. Also, is the Coulson issue safely dead and buried now then – its all gone quiet – especially you Alastair – come on, what do you know? Sounds to me like it was too big to investigate – can, worms etc. Another also, sadly, why am i starting to feel that the Labour Party are becoming marginalised as the nation drifts to the Right? As for GNR – funny how the self-agrandising sponsors are useless when someone actually needs help on the Run and the good old NHS has to come to the rescue in their ambulances and fix them up in their (our) hospitals. Odd that. Maybe you could mention that to Andrew Lansley next time you see him. There again, why bother – no one cares. I’m losing faith.
I seem to remember Tony Blair writing round to his advisers desperately asking for “eye-catching initiatives” to populate his programme. So I guess you already know a fair bit about making it up as you go along.
The problem Labour people have is that is it doesn’t involve spending more public money, or the state intervening in some way or another, it doesn’t compute. Dials spin. Lights flash on and off and steam starts coming out the back.
It’s little wonder you can’t grasp the idea of the big society.
Yes it did actually, or at least a damn sight better than what went before. See below for examples of how Labour made this a better society. Of course they made mistakes, all governments do, but their policies did improve the quality of life for ordinary people. Thatcher’s children have no interest in the reality of life for working people. Instead they offer unemployment and public service cuts whilst pretending that their air-headed notion of the Big Society will somehow compensate us for the misery we are about to endure.
Some of Labour’s achiements:
National Minimum Wage
The shortest waiting times since NHS records began.
Three million more operations carried out each year than in 1997.
Over 44,000 more doctors.
Over 89,000 more nurses
Free prescriptions for people being treated for cancer
An NHS guarantee to see a cancer specialist within two weeks Maximum wait of 18 weeks from GP referral to the start of hospital treatment – and most waits are much shorter than this.
Over 100 new hospital building schemes completed.
Pensioners Winter Fuel Payments.
900,000 pensioners lifted out of poverty.
500,000 children lifted out of relative poverty up to 2007 budget
Free TV licences for over-75s.
2.2 million people helped into work through the New Deal
Over 4.8 million Child Trust Funds started.
3,500 Sure Start Children’s Centres opened
Over 42,000 more teachers and 212,000 more support staff
Around 3,700 rebuilt and significantly refurbished schools
Free nursery places for 3 and 4 year olds.
1.3 million registered childcare places for children under eight years old.
More young people attending university than ever before.
Doubled the number of apprenticeships starts
In 1997 more than half of all schools saw less that 30 per cent of their pupils fail to get 5 good GCSEs including English and Maths. Now only 247 schools – less than one in twelve – fail this benchmark.
Between 1997-98 and 2009-10, total funding per pupil has more than doubled from £3,030 in 1997-98 to £6,350 in 2009-10 in real terms, an increase of 110 per cent.
The Northern Ireland peace process.
The car scrappage scheme
No smoking in most enclosed public places in the UK
The UK’s greenhouse gas emissions are now 21 per cent below 1990 levels, beating our Kyoto target.
Over £20 billion invested in bringing social housing to decent standards.
Rough sleeping has dropped by two thirds and homelessness at its lowest level since the early 1980s.
Free off-peak travel on buses anywhere in England for over-60s and disabled people.
Since 1997 overall crime is down 36 per cent; domestic burglary is down 54 per cent; vehicle related crime is down 57 per cent; and violent crime is down 41 per cent.
Points-based system for immigration
17,000 more police officers since 1997 and 16,000 Police Community Support Officers.
Equalisation of the age of consent and repealed Section 28.
Introduction of civil partnerships
Tripled Britain’s overseas aid budget. UK aid helps lift an estimated 3 million people out of poverty every year.
Cancelled up to 100 per cent of debt for the world’s poorest countries.
More offshore wind capacity than any country in the world
Embarked on the biggest program of council house building for twenty years.
Launched the Swimming Challenge Fund to support free swimming for over 60s and under 16s.
Banned fox hunting.
Free admission to our national museums and galleries.
Devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, elected Mayor and Assembly for London
New right of pedestrian access to the English coast
Signed the Social Chapter introducing vatious measures including: four weeks’ paid holiday; a right to parental leave; extended maternity leave; a new right to request flexible working; and the same protection for part-time workers as full-time workers.
Made Britain one of the first countries to ratify a convention to ban anti-personnel landmines
Introduced the first ever British Armed Forces and Veterans Day to honour the achievements of our Armed Forces – both past and present.