The Big Society

[Limehouse]

What is it? How will we know when we've achieved it? Who will benefit from it?

[Robert]

It's just a political advertising slogan, on a par with "Go to work on an egg," "Beanz Meanz Heinz," "Kills 99% of household germs...DEAD," "You can't put a betterbitabutter on your knife," etc etc.

[babybird67]

yes

it is just spin and a way of deflecting blame for all the painful cuts about to come society's way.

[The Grave Maurice]

I'm not exactly sure what the Big Society is. But, if it's anything like the Great Society, you won't notice any change, even if it arrives.

I do like that "Betterbitabutter" slogan, though. Of course, it works only if you sound the terminal "er"s as "ah"s. Must be big in Oz or Blighty.

[Limehouse]

it is just spin and a way of deflecting blame for all the painful cuts about to come society's way.

Ah! Yes - thanks. The cuts! Yes - I think I've worked it out.

The Big Society - we make big cuts to local jobs and services but continue to pay big fat bonuses to big fat bankers.

A local news report showed an elderly man sobbing into the TV camera. He lives in a remote village and travels each day on the bus to a local town to see his wife who is in a care home. The local authority will no longer fund a local bus thus cutting off the village. He is too unwell to drive and cannot afford taxis. He has always worked locally in agriculture and has never earned a great deal - but he has always worked and paid his way.

Hang you head in shame David Cameron. Are you proud of your Big Society that gives a Big Fat Nothing for this man?

[Chris]

Hang you head in shame David Cameron.

If Cameron should be hanging his head in shame, what should Clegg be doing?

[babybird67]

Clegg has killed the liberals...

no voters will ever trust them again. They've betrayed the students, the elderly, the vulnerable....they have shown their word means absolutely nothing and they are never, ever to be trusted. I am so glad I didn't vote for them. At least the Conservatives are open about having no social morals. The liberals are a disgrace.

[Robert]

Sh! There are no cuts. There are only REFORMS.

And yes, the voters will trust the Liberals again, just as they have trusted and re-trusted the Conservatives and the Labour Party. All three parties are terminally dishonest, mendacious, lazy, ignorant and stupid. But every four or five years obedient sheep toddle off up the road for Pick A Pig Day.

[babybird67]

i dont think so Robert

there is a difference with the big Two in that there is a choice between them...the Liberals were always a peripheral party...they've sent themselves back further into the wilderness with what they have done this time. Whatever progress they had been making persuading the electorate they were viable will have gone. Don't forget they had a huge student following, which will have all gone with their betrayal on fees.

They are a dead party.

The other two will survive because we have to choose someone.

[Robert]

Hi Babybird

If you're offered a choice of three different brands of sh*t, stop eating it. By voting for them you are conferring legitimacy on them. They will then cheat, rob, and even kill you for another four or five years before, much hated, they retire with a bloody nose knowing that their chance will come again when the other party has cheated, robbed and killed you for a few years. The parties accept this as all part of the game. Far from giving these people my vote, I wouldn't give them a bucket of water if they were on fire.

[babybird67]

hi Robert

I understand what you're saying but what's the alternative? We live in a putative democracy, which believe me is much better than some regimes around the world, because i would certainly choose to live here rather than Zimbabwe for example. Wouldn't you? Voting is a luxury that my fore-sisters fought and died for for me, and personally, bad though the system is, I believe in exercising the right to vote that perhaps some of us take for granted.

The point is not so much about voting per se anyway but about the viability of the liberal party, which is shot, as far as I can see.

Unless there is a complete revolution of the voting system, we are stuck with the current system we have with all its faults.

Are you doing anything to change the current system? Would be interesting if we could change it to better reflect what people really want.

[Robert]

Hi Babybird

If enough people stop voting for them they'll change their policies to ones that people want. They're not in it for principle. They're in it for money, fame and power.

Of course they'll go back on their promises as soon as they're elected. I would therefore suggest annual parliaments during the transition period to democracy.

Interesting your mentioning Mugabe. We share with Zimbabwe one salient characteristic : we've both been bankrupted by our politicians.

[babybird67]

hi Robert

so you're waiting for the system to change itself?

I think annual elections are a great idea.


And re: Zimbabwe, i still know where i would rather live. I can't think of one British person who would want to swap our system of politics or life over here for life over there.

[Robert]

Hi Babybird

If I hailed a taxi and asked to be taken to Tottenham Court Rd, but the driver said, "I might take you there, I might not. Depends how I feel" then I would exit the taxi. That is not waiting for the taxi driver to change himself. That's giving him the best incentive to change that I can think of, i.e. no service, no custom.

Re Zimbabwe, I'm sorry but I don't buy this "count your blessings" argument. Our MPs are elected to govern the country in a fit and proper manner. If they cannot do this in a fit and proper manner, then they'll get nowhere with me if they tell me "Cheer up, at least it's not Zimbabwe."

Only the other day the MPs were saying that the current expenses regime makes it impossible for them to do their job. They're expecting the reply "better raise their expenses then." My reply is, "So why are you taking a salary for a job you admit you can't do?"

[babybird67]

hi Robert

but your analogy isn't apt. Driving a taxi is not the same as governing a country. The country has to be governed somehow...you don't have to get a taxi, you can walk, get the bus or tube etc.

I'm not suggesting our system of politics is brilliant, far from it. I hate the corruption as much as you do. I'm just asking how you expect it to change if you don't make any concerted effort to change it. Just ignoring it and hoping it will change itself won't work.

And I am STILL grateful i don't live in Zimbabwe! That's not an argument that improvements cannot and should not be made in our own country. Just a glimpse of my eternal optimism I guess.

I don't think MPs should get any extra expenses. I have to pay my expenses out of my salary, which is much less than theirs, so why can't they do the same?