Tweet
David Cameron is launching a frantic bid to rescue his much-criticised plan for a "big society" as he promises to back the project with public money and new initiatives to help it survive savage government cuts and public scorn.
Writing exclusively for the Observer, the prime minister confronts his critics head on and insists that he will never abandon what he believes is the defining mission of his premiership.
Cameron says the big society is not a government initiative, but the opposite – one that will see power handed from Whitehall to the people. "It has the power to transform our country," he declares. "That is why the big society is here to stay."
In a clear change of emphasis, however, he concedes that massive cuts to the budgets of local authorities, which in turn have had to pass them on to charities, could imperil the whole programme unless help is provided. "We understand that while the opportunity lies in the future the local authority cuts are happening now," he says.
To give the same organisations the working capital to set up and run community schemes, ministers will also lay out plans for a big society bank, whose reserves will be boosted by £200m from Britain's biggest high street banks.
The Observer can also reveal plans, to be announced within the next few weeks, to set up a big society university, backed by a multimillion-pound endowment, that will train future generations of community workers.
Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, who is stepping down as executive director of Britain's largest volunteering charity, Community Service Volunteers, sent a wave of near panic through Whitehall departments – which have all been asked to develop big society initiatives of their own – when she said spending cuts risked obliterating the country's existing army of volunteers.
Claims from Labour and others that talk of a big society is a way of concealing the cuts agenda are also rejected. "That is simply not true," the prime minister argues. "I was talking about social responsibility long before the cuts. Building a stronger, bigger society is something we should try to do whether spending is going up or down.
Separately, in an interview in the Observer marking publication of the freedom bill, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg says the coalition has made good progress in rolling back many of the intrusive laws passed by Labour.
However, he told Henry Porter people were right to continue to be suspicious of central diktat. "You shouldn't trust any government, actually, including this one. You should not trust government – full stop. The natural inclination is to hoard power and information."
Big Time . . . .
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...on-big-society