The Big Society
David Cameron is right! The idea of the Big Society is a brilliant one. But it's already being going on for quite a few years since before he was born!!
My Uncle Percy (an ordinary working man) was one of those who not only worked a 50-hour week as standard but also put in so many hours every week in giving free help to administer charity work for those who were without shelter or in other kinds of desperate need. This was before the War and just after, before the Welfare State came into being.
That was the time of the real Big Society. But there are many, many other examples from before Uncle Percy's time and since, including a certain George Perkins of Birmingham who I came across more than 35 years ago, trying to stimulate interest in youngsters in deprived areas to help the community.
Cameron talks blithely on TV about how his middle-class, moneyed constituency are setting a good example for the Big Society. Problem is, he nor the people he's talking of have hardly ever met the true blood of the country who live on near to nothing yet still help their neighbours; least of all they have no inkling of how people such as they live. At least Michael Portillo has tried to find out.
Does Cameron understand that for the great majority of ordinary men and women it is a matter of pride that they can work to support their family? No. Instead, Cameron acknowledges these hard-working people by taking away their jobs and giving the task of running the services to the voluntary sector.
The beauty of it all is, that on top of taking away jobs from the hard-working, there is no gap between the cuts being applied and the new (voluntary) services being available. Even the voluntary services that do exist are being drastically cut.
As always, it is the vulnerable that are the hardest hit.
Congratulations people - by voting in the Tories and Lib-Dems (or have had apathy towards politics) you have taken the country back to early Victorian times. The work of the benevolent and fighters for justice in Victorian times has been forgotten. With bankers stealing from society, and the City feeding the Tory party, the fight against oppression and injustice now has to start all over again.
To think that I thought that Maggie Thatcher, by bringing in controls over the unions, might be doing the right thing! Idiot!
Having said that, I do not want to see the unions and strikes bringing the country down even further.
.
My Uncle Percy (an ordinary working man) was one of those who not only worked a 50-hour week as standard but also put in so many hours every week in giving free help to administer charity work for those who were without shelter or in other kinds of desperate need. This was before the War and just after, before the Welfare State came into being.
That was the time of the real Big Society. But there are many, many other examples from before Uncle Percy's time and since, including a certain George Perkins of Birmingham who I came across more than 35 years ago, trying to stimulate interest in youngsters in deprived areas to help the community.
Cameron talks blithely on TV about how his middle-class, moneyed constituency are setting a good example for the Big Society. Problem is, he nor the people he's talking of have hardly ever met the true blood of the country who live on near to nothing yet still help their neighbours; least of all they have no inkling of how people such as they live. At least Michael Portillo has tried to find out.
Does Cameron understand that for the great majority of ordinary men and women it is a matter of pride that they can work to support their family? No. Instead, Cameron acknowledges these hard-working people by taking away their jobs and giving the task of running the services to the voluntary sector.
The beauty of it all is, that on top of taking away jobs from the hard-working, there is no gap between the cuts being applied and the new (voluntary) services being available. Even the voluntary services that do exist are being drastically cut.
As always, it is the vulnerable that are the hardest hit.
Congratulations people - by voting in the Tories and Lib-Dems (or have had apathy towards politics) you have taken the country back to early Victorian times. The work of the benevolent and fighters for justice in Victorian times has been forgotten. With bankers stealing from society, and the City feeding the Tory party, the fight against oppression and injustice now has to start all over again.
To think that I thought that Maggie Thatcher, by bringing in controls over the unions, might be doing the right thing! Idiot!
Having said that, I do not want to see the unions and strikes bringing the country down even further.
.
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