Does Cameron's "Big Society"....

I try to take the Monty Python attitude "always look on the bright side of life". There's nothing else we can do. Watch an episode of the 'The Thick of it'. That's why they create it, so that we can laugh at it all and not become despondent. Remember, "we're all in it together", and tomorrow is another day.

but outpourings of frustration on MN arent gonna rock their worlds tooooooooooo much are they? even if they make me feel a tad better.

i'm an activist in italy which means taking part in demos, leafletting and all that bollox but at times i don't see much point in that either as people have grown so jaded and apathetic. this mood is engendered by the conviction that ALL politicians are bastards so surely the way to make real change is to stay positive and - above all - ACTIVE. which sometimes means loggin off MN! (unfortunately))

The media played Ed Miliband up as if he was a contender, then when he won, I am sure that the Tories were cheering. Then when he appointed Alan Johnson as Shadow Chancellor, they probably couldn't believe their luck. I think Ed also said that there shouldn't be strikes. He makes a great opposition.

But it's not all depressing. They do listen and they do adapt policies to take account of the public's mood, even if it is done slowly. So it is still important to campaign for change and not to become despondent.

Yes, it is tongue in cheek. I do it to wind the progressives up, because they all hate the Daily Mail, and they think they are superior because they read the Guardian.

I agree with you. I don't believe there is an opposition. It is all theatre. They are all in it together. Major started a study looking into fees for university education, and Labour implemented it, and the Tories have increased it. When the Tories eventually leave in 15 years' time, then Labour will probably increase it again. Harriet Harman started the increase in pensionable age, and Iain Duncan Smith has accelerated it. All this talk of Tory bastards obscures the fact that it is not down to the Tories. Everything is theatre, there is no opposition.

so claig your professed admiration for all things propagated in the daily mail is tongue in cheek too then? hoorah for that!

looking at these threads though a theme's emerging which is that even though the tories are much more in yer face re. implementing this radical neocon agenda the so called opposition has been complicit in this while in power and still is complicit in this.

so what REAL opposition to this natural progression of thatcherite/ reaganism is there that can make an actual difference? that's why most decent people opt out in sheer exasperation at it all and voting abstention is on the rise.

when I use the term 'The Three Wise Men' for Cameron, Osborne and Gove, it is very slightly tongue in cheek. But when I use the term 'The Three Stooges' for Miliband, Balls and Johnson, then it is said with serious intent.

put words in ur MOUTH i meant obv

sorry then claig to put words in your i'd presumed u pretty much agree with everything "the wise men" wanna implement. good to see u've seen the light!

Good article here about the status of the Big Soc as a cover for making more and more opportunities available to the private sector to get its claws into public service delivery, and also about the limitations of the Big Society Bank (which Polly Toynbee also has a good article about in today's Guardian)

Agree that Big Soc is simply a continuation of Labour's use of the voluntary sector as a figleaf for marketisation of public service delivery. They have been spectacularly crap at giving a strong critique of Big Soc rhetoric.

I don't like the Big Society, I think it is spin for cuts. But I think the opposition secretly agree with it, so it will happen. The Big Society Bank shows that there is serious intent behind it.

totally agree with claig on this one even though im sure (s)he's happy at the prospect of the big society (more inequality and the effective privatisation of all services) whereas im terrified as had been planning on returning to uk with baby and am now seriously revising all that. so hope they dont go the full term but agree they will and the changes will be devastaing and pretty much irreversable. as i said previously: only solution is a revolution but that aint gonna happen.

cameron et al are much more dangerous than thatch.

Yes, I think it will definitely last the full term, and probably longer. That is what is intended, in order to make the planned changes. We now see that Big Society was also part of Labour's thinking, and we see many ex-Labour bigwigs advising the Coalition etc., so the opposition looks hollow, although it will continue to ham it up for full effect.

The thing is that MNs are not preaching to everyone else to say that they should! and MNs are not simultaneously lining the pockets of the banks to fund us all doing it either.

They have volunteered to run the country.

Yes I do. Cameron voluntarily staggered into the Bullingham Club, when at Oxford, notorious for it's 'binge drinking' according to Wikipedia.

No, I cannot find anywhere that cites Cameron has done voluntary work. Others have, but not him.

How many MNs have done voluntary work![sceptical]

just wondered, does anyone know what voluntary work cammeron/osbourne et al do/ ever did?

noone voted for this but then again noone voted for this ideologically driven right wing government as it had no majority. a very british coup. then dave has the front to go on about democracy wrt egypt.

I don't think it matters where it comes from, tbh.

But what happens when there is a political class (in thrall to vested interests) that goes against the will of the people? Maybe the Egyptians could tell us.

Did any of us vote for this? I can't remember it being on any manifesto that I read.

theres not much else to add when real life politics has satirised and transcended satire. depressingly orwellian innit? only a revolution could save us now but every bugger'll be too busy slaving and then volunteering to kick one off. its so sickeningly ironic that cameron talks of a big society that he and his filthy rich mates play no actual part in and view us all from their lofty towers. theirs is a small sealed off society which hasto plunder ours to keep itself stinking rich. god, the bastards.

It would be a great idea if call me Dave wasnt cutting all the public sector and making us mere pourpers work for free instead.