Cactus Mouth Informer: February 2011

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Big Society Volunteers

Things aren't looking so great for UK plc at the moment. First we had the economy contracting, inflation was already heading up and that looks set to continue and unemployment is heading up with particular impact on those under 24. We have a year ahead full of all manner of cuts, job losses, strife, protests and more cuts.

The ConDems have announced their priorities: deficit reduction and, errr, that's it. Still, you wouldn't expect anything less of them would you? A cabinet chock full of millionaires is hardly going to be impacted by cuts in public services, cuts to the NHS, local government cuts, bad hair cuts and whatever else. Their current mantra is "Reduce the deficit. Blame Labour. All in it together. It's only fair." and there really appears to be little more than that.

However, we can credit the ConDems policies with giving rise to a whole new interconnected yet localised and autonomous protest group - UK Uncut. We can also credit them with massively raising political awareness amongst students and schoolchildren in a very short period of time. And I'm sure, as the year progresses, there will be more, ahem, triumphs.

But it was Cameron's continued emphasis on his Big Society idea that intrigued me when I tweeted the following a couple of days ago:

'Big Society 'volunteers' will come from swelling ranks of unemployed being told to work or lose pittance benefit money #ConDem'

I think I was half-joking.

Surely not even the Tories would think they could get away with slashing budgets thus making hundreds of thousands redundant, only to then force those people back into the jobs they have just vacated? But this time they would be working as part of the 'Big Society Welfare to Work Program' whereby employers get cheap labour in the form of unemployed 'volunteers'.

Surely they couldn't get away with that if it was even their plan?

And then I read this: "He provided the inspiration for a tough overhaul of US welfare under which unemployed people have to work for benefits. Now American academic Lawrence Mead gives his view on how the UK could benefit from a similar approach." And, in 2010, Mr Mead was invited to No. 10 to 'brief' the government.

What do you think? Is it going to be this blatant?