The archbishop of Canterbury apparently has defined the entire concept of Big Society as Aspirational Waffle. Nothing wrong in aspiration, but for him to say its waffle is extremely rich. He says
"Introduced in the run-up to the last election as a major political idea for the coming generation, [the Big Society] has suffered from a lack of definition about the means by which such ideals can be realised.
"Big society rhetoric is all too often heard by many therefore as aspirational waffle designed to conceal a deeply damaging withdrawal of the state from its responsibilities to the most vulnerable."
He went on to say that if the Big Society is "anything better than a slogan looking increasingly threadbare as we look at our society reeling under the impact of public spending cuts, then discussion on this subject has got to take on board some of those issues about what it is to be a citizen and where it is that we most deeply and helpfully acquire the resources of civic identity and dignity".
It works, take for example the work which we do at HSH. We have some public sector funding, we have some private sector funding, we mix that with about 40-60 volunteers, with 2.5 FTE’s, 6 trustees and we help about 100 families per year. Each child which goes into care costs up to £50k, and we end up saving a ton more than just one. So we are saving a shed load of money, we are showing volunteering, our volunteers use this opportunity to learn to get back into work and it is a win win all over the place.
Withdrawal of the state? What on earth is this man talking about? Stick to your platitudes mate, leave the real work to people are actually doing something in the real life. JESUS (and yes, pun intended).
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