Please let me know who is being unreasonable ...

[WeAreSociety]

BIG SOCIETY

With this hand
I'll take your job
because Society cannot afford to hire you

I'll reduce the benefits you are entitled to
because you do not have a job

Please understand that Society cannot afford to keep you


With this hand
I shall point and ask

How dare you decide to sit at home and not work?
How dare you decide to claim benefits?

Do you not know that
Society cannot afford
to keep you and pay for you

Why don't you do something useful
and volunteer for Society?



But sir,

I cannot afford to eat
Food prices are rising
I cannot afford childcare
Childcare costs are rising

I cannot afford my rent
Rent prices are increasing
I cannot afford heating
Gas prices are rising

Who shall care for my disabled spouse, my incapacitated parents?
I cannot afford a private carer, and my hospital has no beds

How can I afford to go out and volunteer for Society?
I cannot afford to help Society when I cannot afford to help myself



With this hand
I shall say to you

I cannot afford to listen to you
Society cannot afford to listen to you

You are not our problem


Whatever happened to Society?

**


I'm actually not sure who is being unreasonable here. So, I'll put it to MN ...

Is he being unreasonable?
Or is he?

[Peachy]

Valid points covered.

My mate, a Librarian, receiv ed her redundancy a week before a letter from a library asking if she had considering volunteering for them. WTF? She does have bills to cover!

Big Society is a remarketing of what many (most?) of us have always done, maybe as ex violunteer manager I had an obvious glimpse. However it's less easy in a time of cuts- I want to set up a support group for kids who have a sibling with autism but cannot get a room or any funding. My time and expertise is free but can;t afford room hire on top!

[corlan]

Agree with Peachy - the 'big society' has always been there. Thousands of people giving up their time and energy to help others.

Cameron's idea of a big society is shorthand for cuts in public services - voluntary groups and charities will be expected to fill the gap. If we're all really lucky maybe we'll get a cut in our taxes to make up for it.

In short - the rich will get richer but if, for any reason, you fall by the wayside, then you be damned lucky to get any help off the state.

[Peachy]

Absolutely cordan

Someone hs set up a thing here, won;t anmem but a voluntary ything that provides cleaning / gardening to people that SSD can no longer help. They're massive- they advertise at school for volunteers etc.

now apart from the fact I find it rather awful that the owners are making a personal mint out of 'employing' people for free who used to have jobs in the sector, they also get to make the call over who gets help.

face don;t fit you don;t get it.

We have 4 kids: 2 with siagnosed asd, 2 beinga ssessed (one asd one adhd)

face doessn't fit

no help

[Bandwitch]

NYANBU

This guy is one of the most blinkered, ruthless, privileged, hypocritical thinkers in the uk and he's the priminister. Scary for y'all.

They're coming out wiht this crap in Ireland too. Suddenly anybody on benefits is a burden and should basically flagellate themselves for being weak. There's a lot of hot air about re-skilling and up-skilling here but there are people in those industries unemployed as well. There are no jobs and so they (politicians who should be creating jobs) blame the people with no jobs. Genius.

[Bandwitch]

ps, yes agree about big society. how much voluntary work have he and his colleagues done, and his old school mates from eton I wonder? and charity balls don't count.... fck all I'd imagine. It's the women who should be doing all the voluntary work ...........

[DontCallMePeanut]

It's the women who should be doing all the voluntary work Just like in the 19th Century...

[piedpiper4]

As a fundraiser for a small voluntary charity supporting vulnerable families, I would like to say that The Big Society has always been there (as has rightly been said). Problem is that this society is already stretched to it's limits.

We have a country full of wonderful volunteers who are already supporting others in need. We, as a nation, have been relying on these unsung hero's for many years. But like all things, they can only stretch so far and many are having to give up, because they are in real need themselves and have to earn a living too.

So Mr C, how do you expect the Big Soc to take over, when you are removing financial support to the very charities who support vulnerable people in the UK, and who also provide the training and support to the very volunteers who you expect to support said vulnberable people? Surely, that opens the Big Society up for potential problems. Well meaning people can potentially get themselves in to untold difficulties because they are trying to deal with problems they have no experience of.

How are volunteers supposed to care for others, when they are now having to use their time to provide for their own families due to real worries about their own financial security?

The enormity of this fills me with fear. Think it through Mr C....families with very real safeguarding issues being missed because there is no one to notice, old people starving in their own homes for the same reason....come on Mr C...is this where we should be heading?

[Onemorning]

YANBU.