Philip Johnson has an article in tomorrow's Daily Telegraph about the Big Society entitled: "Show us the small print on the Big Society".
What that small print won't contain is (a) that this idea just pre-empts an 'initiative' from the European nion called the "EU Year of Volunteering"; and (b) where Johnson quotes Cameron stating: "You can call it liberalism. You can call it empowerment. You can call it freedom. You can call it responsibility. I call it the Big Society." I would add: I call it "The Big Con". From the Cabinet Office website comes this informative leaflet: "Building the Big Society", a policy idea being sold to the people as devolution of power, the chance for them to decide local matters - when in fact it is anything but.
Two examples:
Example 1: "Mr Cameron will announce community projects in four parts of the country will be given help in a bid to launch the Government’s agenda. Each will get an expert organiser and dedicated civil servants to ensure “people power” initiatives get off the ground and inspire a wider change."
What will, in effect, happen is that the 'expert organiser' and 'dedicated civil servant' will 'guide' the volunteers along the path already selected by central government - path which will involve 'communitarianism'. Some devolution of power! From the paper "Building the Big Society" we read: "We will train a new generation of community organisers....." and they too will be 'trained' to deliver the programme dictated by central government.
Example 2: The Localism Bill - Clause 52(4): "If the authority decides to take no steps to give effect to the result...." means that Local Authorities can disregard the result of any referendum that may be held. Some devolution of power!
Whichever way you look at it, Cameron is either the wolf in sheeps clothing (someone who plays a role contrary to their real character, with whom contact is dangerous)
or he is a Judas Goat* (.....a Judas goat will lead sheep to slaughter, while its own life is spared).
Is it not us that should be slaughtering them?
7 comments:
Judas goat – love it. A deliciously accurate phrase that needs a wide audience.
Cameron is Clueless. He likes the title and the office but not the job and thinks he can chivvy up a few people to organise a village fete which he will open. He is so much a product of his helpless class.
He has never had to worry about his time, he has never been under pressure because he always had a job where he had power to set an agenda.
They simply cannot understand how harassed most people are, how fearful, how lacking in financial or emotional reserves - how much of a treadmill their lives are.
I think this sort of 'Initiative' falls under the heading of "Means well, but is out of touch with the realities."
The mere mention of giving these 'Initiatives' their own 'dedicated civil servants' is enough to tell me it is just another round of Jobs for Jobsworths. All Political Patries, all the Leaders and all the MPs are completely out of touch with the realities of modern Britain. Our 'industries' are long gone, now owned by off shore investors and industrialists who can pull the plug and shed them anytime they like, even most of our commercial companies are owned and managed by off shore boards and as for our once mighty shipping industry... Well exactly.
None of the politicians know what to do about it so they are forced to justify their existence by passing unnecessary laws, re-arranging the deck chairs and doing as the Civil Servants tell them to do. We haven't lived in a democracy since the 1920s, what we have is an Oligarchy in which the politicians and the civil servants look after themselves and their friends and relatives and the rest of the populace survives on what they allow us to have.
The EU Year of Volunteering has national corordinating offices. Our one is:
Office for Civil society - Cabinet Office
Tom Leftwich | Policy Advisor, Participation team
2nd Floor, Admiralty Arch, South Side, The Mall, London, SW1A 2WH
Tel: +44 020 7276 1941
E-mail: thomas.leftwich@cabinet-office.x.gsi.gov.uk
www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/voluntary-sector
It would be interesting for someone to tie any of Cameron's stuff to this to prove he is just am agent of Brussels.
"We will train a new generation of community organisers....."
Sounds like the the use of the people trained by the organisation called COMMON PURPOSE to me.
T: Yup, loved it when I first saw it on RN's blog!
TT: Could not agree more!
TGM: Shades of the FSS and the FSC, methinks.
S: Interesting fact, thanks. The only tie is that the EU Year of Volunteering is one that all states must support, one way or another!
D: Cracked it in one!
I recall another "community organiser", let's see, Barack Obama or some such. In Chicargo of all places, HQ of the mob.
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