Putting faith in untested theories

Demos have hardly been the bastions of left leaning politics as the plaything of New Labour but their latest ‘report’ frankly stretches the boundaries of even their restricted credibility. Based on severely limited case studies, with no quantifiable data or proof of claimed ‘efficiencies’ (other than volunteers are ripe for exploitation to cover rabid right-wing cuts in public services) this report promotes the failed right wing ideology that volunteerism can patch up flaking public services. The link to the report is here on the Local Gov website: http://www.localgov.co.uk/index.cfm?method=news.detail&id=108544

Cuts hurt everyone

#cutshurt Australia’s Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) has launched an impressive Cuts Hurt campaign to resist Government cuts to public services and alert Australians to Opposition proposals to slash and burn the public sector, including an attempt to import Big Society ideology Down Under:
http://cutshurt.com.au/cuts-hurt-everyone

'Big Society' Volunteering & Job Substitution

As austerity cuts kick in, an article in this week's Economist magazine highlights a rise in the number of volunteers running public services, notably in libraries where 'the number of volunteer librarians has increased by over 70% in five years, to 21,642 in 2011'.
http://www.economist.com/node/
21559939?fsrc=scn/tw_ec/unpaid_armies

Statutory guidance to councils reveals true intent behind 'Big Society'

Whilst Cameron and Maude talk the language of choice and localism their true intentions are revealed in draft statutory guidance issued by DCLG. The 'Community Right to Challenge', given to English charities, coops and mutuals under the Localism Act 2011 to bid to run council services has long been regarded as a Trojan horse to open up services to the private sector. The guidance issued by Eric Pickles, with a foreword from Andrew Stunell, confirms just that. The new guidance which you can read in full here at paragraph 9.5 explicitly seeks to stop in-house services from tendering to continue to run services forced out to competition under the 'Community Right to Challenge':
http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/localgovernment/righttochallengestatguidance

Big society? No - Big Dividends? Yes!

It’s nice to know that big banker bonuses are not reserved simply to bankers. The Con Dems are making doubly certain that their cronies are ‘all in it together’ when it comes to creaming off super bonuses. A4e, the company, appointed by David Cameron to help get troubled families into work, and which so far has produced little by way of success has paid just five shareholders £11m in dividends last year, of which Ms Harrison, the company Chair exposed by Cameron as a ‘families champion’ received 87% or about £8.6m in real money. ‘Nice work’ if you could actually help somebody else get it....  http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16174701
Anna Rose

‘Big Society’ acts against Edinburgh privatisation

The real ‘big society’ has taken hold in Edinburgh as citizens take things into their own hands by organising public meetings against £1billion privatisation plans.

Photos: UNISON Billboard blitz ahead of May elections

The second phase of UNISON’s political advertising campaign - ahead of the May election -, was launched yesterday. Giant billboards have been posted across the country with a common theme, listing jobs that are being cut under three eye-catching headlines, “Welcome To The Big Society” “Stop Having Children” and “Don’t Get Sick”: http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2271

UNISON Billboard blitz ahead of May elections

The second phase of UNISON’s political advertising campaign - ahead of the May election -, was launched yesterday. Giant billboards have been posted across the country with a common theme, listing jobs that are being cut under three eye-catching headlines, “Welcome To The Big Society” “Stop Having Children” and “Don’t Get Sick”: http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2271

The long march against the cuts

Heather Wakefield, UNISON’s head of local government, writing for the Public Finance blog, reviews Saturday’s mammoth demonstration in London: ‘Carnival-like marches might win the short-term psychological battle, but they won’t win the political war. For sure, they keep spirits high, build solidarity and remind us that there are millions out there who want an end to Coalition cuts, but alone they are not enough. There is much more to do.’

On 26 March the real 'Big Society' will assemble - Chris Tansley

Chris Tansley, UNISON Vice President and child care social worker in Nottinghamshire County Council, writing on the Community Care website, responds to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King's self fulfilling prophesy that reaction to Government cuts is surprisingly muted:
http://www.communitycare.co.uk/blogs/social-work-front-line-focus/2011/03/join-us-on-26-march-to-stop-the-cuts.html

The people behind the Big Society headlines

The Big Society means in simple terms that the state should pull back from delivering public services and communities should do more for themselves. A stark reminder of what this means is as follows:

A dangerous social experiment‏

In the 1980’s the response to the Thatcherite regime of outsourcing was for some progressives to suggest that the way forward to protect public service ethos would be to establish worker cooperatives or not-for-profit trusts. Margaret Hodge and others are rehashing the same arguments now in the name of new labour.

Return to Babylon

Neal Ascherson's scathing analysis in the Herald of the rolling back of public service state is well worth a read - 'Sometimes a train rolls backwards.... Those shrieking, guffawing Tory cheers, after Chancellor George Osborne proclaimed his spending cuts! Out of their train window, they could see approaching the dim old vaults of Babylon Central, where taxes were low, scroungers ate bread and marge, and a working-class mother told her son: “Don’t get ideas. Folk like us are just here to make up the numbers.” http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/guest-commentary/return-to-babylon-1.1064858

Tories cut & run!‏

The Guardian reports that plans by the so called Big Society Network to launch David Cameron's "big society" through a series of public meetings have been abandoned after the first event held in Stockport ended in ‘acrimonious exchanges over spending cuts’. http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/oct/05/big-society-meetings-cancelled-cuts-anger

Government preparing to privatise library service, warns Terence Blacker in the Independent‏

"A country's public library service is a sure indicator of how highly it values its citizens, its children and its future. There may well be a place for the new localism around the outer fringes of the service - the library is a focus of local life, after all - but, if the Government allows it to slip into decline in the hollow name of community, Ed Vaizey's promises and his boss's Big Society will be exposed as a heartless sham", writes Terence Blacker in the Independent‏  http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/terence-blacker/terence-blacker-hands-off-our-public-libraries-2057131.html

Demos or Devious? Why let survey answers get in the way of your policy message?‏

These times are hard for think-tanks, with those favoured by New Labour desperate to flash a bit of leg at the Con Dem coalition, in a frantic attempt to reinvent their credentials as 'independent’ and thus secure future funding.

Worked to death - Karoshi in the UK?‏

Work till you drop dead that's what the Big Society really means. TheCon Dem's plan to make us continue to work way past our retirement and into our 70's. http://tiny.cc/3rm9i

Big Society? More like a self-preservation society for Tories

"When will Big Society Day be held? David Cameron launched the idea on March 31. The annual day will probably be on April 1. But just until midday", says Tom Shields in the Herald newspaper's recent hilarious but biting Q&A on Tory plans. http://www.heraldscotland.com/comment/tom-shields/big-society-more-like-a-self-preservation-society-for-tories-1.1018133