An interested and concerned local man makes some interesting points below, will The Big Society actually be able to deliver anything more than rhetoric?
'There seems to be a lot of excitement about The Big Society but some are already calling at The Big Sham. Basically all that it entails is pulling back the state and expecting people to do it for free. Indeed, it is the voluntary and community sector which is taking a big a hit as anybody, for example with the V programme for youth volunteering having massive cuts throwing upon it. This is not a Big Society which supports those organisations who support and train volunteers. Liverpool, which is one of the pilot areas for The Big Society, is not even getting any funding for its Big Society project but it is being given access to a ‘bureaucracy buster’! Before the voluntary and community groups – and local authorities – get too excited about the rhetoric we need to make sure we know the detail, and the detail is massive cuts and then asking people do to the same service for free (without any funding for those VCS groups who support this work). Polly Toynbee wrote an interesting piece in the Guardian – see here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/aug/06/big-society-is-big-fat-lie'
96k Community Reporters will certainly be asking your MP for his response to this.
