There are a few things that we can rely on to happen monthly. A full moon, pay day and David Cameron having another bash at trying to explain exactly what his Big Society idea is.
He was at it again today and called it 'central to the social recovery the country needed'. The country said 'whatever posh boy' and largely ignored him because despite this 150th attempt at explaining exactly what it is, nobody seems to understand it. Allow me to enlighten you in three easy to follow steps.
1) The Conservatives, in an attempt to save money, make 500,000 public servants redundant.
2) Public Services (services provided by government to its citizens) stretched and forced to close.
3) Volunteer groups then take over and run the public services.
That's it. That is what David Cameron has been trying to say for the past 12 months. He wants people to do for nothing, the jobs that people were previously being paid to do.
It really isn't that difficult a concept but of course Dave has to wrap it all up in political spin to make it sound like something wonderful because otherwise we will say 'hold on, you want me to do for free what someone was getting paid £15,000 per year to do just last month? On yer bike sunshine'.
Try again in a few weeks Dave, i enjoy hearing you flap around in the wind desperately trying to explain what the Big Society is without actually explaining what it is.
4 comments:
Find a nice way to tell someone you want to: a) cut government spending and b) raise taxes and you'll be the greatest statesman who has ever lived.
TANSTAAFL. If y'all's public finances are anything like ours, those 500,000 "public servants" (a shamelessly Orwellian term) and those public services were probably always paid for thru deficit spending. That can't go on forever. The solution to deficit spending is only too apparent.
Although I agree that "Big Society" sounds unbelievably dumb.
-Nog
Nog's right that there's no real way to 'sell' a massive retrenchment (that will not only take money out of the public sector, but also the private, because of the interconnectedness of the economy) in any way that people will like.
However, I still think it's our duty as citizens to point out clearly that we do realise we're being bullshitted about all of this, and that 'the big society' in practice will actually result in the provision of fewer services. Services that we were paying for just fine until the bail-out of RBS, Northern Rock, HBOS and Lloyds.
'those public services were probably always paid for thru deficit spending' - As cheezy said, there didn't seem to be a problem until the financial bods decided to screw everything up Nog. Now we get blackmailed into either running the services for free or seeing them closed.
I know there is no nice way to say it, but i do dislike the way it is trying to be spun into a good thing. I donlt think we are being fooled but i read in the i today that there are private firms waiting to step in.
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