The Big Society
In the USA, Huey Long proposed to make "Every Man a King;" Roosevelt promoted the "New Deal" in the 1930s. Kennedy and Johnson strove toward a "New Frontier" and a "Great Society" in the '60s. Mao Zedong wanted a "Great Leap Forward" in the '50s and a "Cultural Revoluiton" in the '60s. Ronald Reagan wanted to recognize "Morning Again in America." Tony Blair proposed "New Labour," while Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping pushed for "Four Modernizations." Hu Jintao has been campaigning to create a "Harmonious Society."And now David Cameron wants to reform Britain into a "Big Society." New, great, revolution, modernization and harmonious are pretty clear. But what's a "big" society and how is it different from what the British have? Critics call it "Do it yourself government."
The web site for PM Cameron's No. 10 Downing Street said the aim is "to create a climate that empowers local people and communities, building a big society that will 'take power away from politicians and give it to the people.'" (Pardon my skepticism, but I think that means take power and money away from Labourite bureaucrats and government programs. I don't think the PM wants to relinquish any of the power he's so recently won.)
The details are controversial and are being criticized from inside and outside of the Conservative Party. Pay attention to future developments in the program for a "Big Society" and the ramifications for politics in the UK.
Platoons under siege
David Cameron's… inclusive motto—"We’re all in this together"—is being drowned out by accusations that its grand project is a cynical cover for public-sector cuts: the “Big Con”, as one Labour MP puts it.Britain’s do-it-yourself government
The Big Society evolved in opposition as the Conservatives sought to slough off their reputation as a heartless bunch, fixated only on economic outcomes. Besides reminding the Tory party to sound nice… the concept had ideological roots. Mr Cameron and his allies are keen on pushing power away from central government. They want to encourage pluralism and competition in the delivery of services—and to dilute the British tendency to think that the public purse should be the first and only port of call for everything from libraries to children’s centres.
In its first year, the coalition government has begun to deliver policies that reflect those beliefs… A first, smallish wave of “free schools” [charter schools] are being set up. There are to be more directly elected mayors in major cities and new, elected local police commissioners. The welfare system is being overhauled to let private firms and charities compete for more contracts.
But the Big Society has come up against the rough business of cuts: to shrink Britain’s gaping fiscal deficit, the government is implementing drastic reductions in public spending. Protests about the impending closure of libraries and messy plans to remove woodland from public ownership have put ministers on the defensive. Even some of the Big Society’s devotees in Number 10 admit that the upbeat message of mutual reliance has got lost in the rows over deficit reduction, and the consequences for charities and others that depend on local councils for money…
A few times a week, Kirsten Dhanda takes her family and her dog to Grenfell Park, her local green space in the affluent London commuter suburb of Maidenhead, and picks up discarded beer cans.
If you ask her, she's just doing what any civilized person would do to keep her neighbourhood tidy for everyone to use. Ms. Dhanda does not think of herself as a tiny cog in the most radical, sweeping experiment that Britain has embarked on in the postwar years…
And yet that is exactly what she is: one of Prime Minister David Cameron's foot soldiers, marching toward the new Jerusalem that he calls the Big Society.
Ms. Dhanda was just doing her bit to clean up after the can-tossing louts who pollute her kids' playground when she was asked if she wanted to sign up to one of the fledgling Big Society programs run by her local government authority, Maidenhead and Windsor Council. She was given an official stick and a bag…
Some of her neighbours watched skeptically from their houses: Didn't they already pay taxes to the council so it would pick up the garbage?…
Long before… May [of] last year, Mr. Cameron talked incessantly – monotonously, some of his colleagues thought – of his “great passion” to devolve power away from bureaucrats in London to ordinary individuals.
“The biggest, most dramatic redistribution of power, from elites in Whitehall,” he said in a speech last summer, “to the man and woman in the street.”…
In a year's time, if all goes well, the Big Society Bank that Mr. Cameron has created will be doling out £200-million ($320-million) to voluntary groups... A host of “bureaucracy busters,” 5,000 civilian volunteers and an army of 16-year-olds will be recruited to help deliver social services.
In the Conservative idyll, the inexpert but enthusiastic will take over libraries, run unprofitable bus services, scour public ledgers for irregularities…
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Labels: civil society, political culture, politics, UK
posted by Ken Wedding @ 5:55 AM
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Alan Carter in Oxford sent a link to this article from The Telegraph to supplement the articles I found on the Big Society.
Dormant bank accounts to pay for Big Society projects
The idea to make use of money lying wasted in old and forgotten bank accounts was first included in Labour’s general election manifesto in 2005 and became law three years later.
Two years on, however, the first funds have yet to be passed to community projects or charities.
Under the terms of the 2008 Dormant Bank Accounts Act, money left untouched for at least 15 years was due to be used for youth facilities, literacy projects and a social investment bank which would have awarded grants to community groups.
But law also stated that the money could not be tapped into until the Treasury established a “Reclaim Fund” to attempt to track down savers with dormant accounts. This has yet to happen.
A banks or building society account is classed as dormant if there has been no customer activity, such as a transaction or query like a statement request, for 15 years.
An estimated £500 million lies dormant in bank and building society accounts, and another £435 million in National Savings and Insurance.
Account holders may have moved abroad or forgotten about their money, or could have died without leaving a will.
Following the announcement of a Big Society Bank, money will now begin to flow from dormant banks from April 2011...
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