Published: November 9th 2011 - at 11:42 amCameron’s latest Big Society blunder
The Prime Minister went to give evidence to a Committee of MPs yesterday about the Big Society. In response to questions, he claimed that:
“we are not sitting back and just hoping that the Big Society springs up. We have established what was called the Big Society Bank, which is now called Big Society Capital. It will get £200 million from the banks under the Merlin agreement.
That will be making grants to small voluntary bodies, so that they can scale up; they can be bigger and they can do more things.”
Sounds good, right? It is just a shame that, back in May, the government agreed that:
“The BSB[Big Society Bank] will not be a grant-making organisation. Funds deployed will therefore seek both financial and social returns.”
No wonder the Big Society isn’t working. Cameron thinks that one of the flagship policies of his government is that they’ve got hundreds of millions of pounds from the banks to give in grants to small voluntary organisations, so that they can build up the Big Society.
Instead, these small voluntary organisations are being offered loans, which will ‘seek a financial return’.
Meanwhile, government cuts mean that voluntary organisations are losing hundreds of millions of pounds in grants.
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Don Paskini is deputy-editor of LC. He also blogs at donpaskini. He is on twitter as @donpaskini
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Reader comments
“the Merlin agreement”
It’s fiting that things associated with the Big Society have magical names, given that the premise behind it is “wave a wand and pretend that will magically make everything better”.
@1 ‘Cameron the tosser’ doesnt strike me as very magical!
We’re not still talking about this big society thing are we?
I think the rest of the country realise it’s dead – even the Tories have stopped mentioning it.
Maybe they’ve realised that the big society is in fact the thousands of protestors who will eventually storm parliament.
@3 – It’s worth talking about the Occupy protests being Big Society just to watch the Tories score own goals over it.
Reactions: Twitter, blogs
- Liberal Conspiracy
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Derek Bryant
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- random
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Ebony Dawn Marsh
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Sue Jones
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Gregory McNeill
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Paul Cotterill
More evidence that Cameron can't do the basics http://t.co/EGa5joHB via @donpaskini He can't tell difference between a grant and a loan.
- Bill Dishington
RT @libcon: Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/NuORLAVJ > more #BigSociety bollocks. I keep waiting for a coalition of UK…
- Garry Haywood
More evidence that Cameron can't do the basics http://t.co/EGa5joHB via @donpaskini He can't tell difference between a grant and a loan.
- Brian Moylan
RT @Burntdish: RT @libcon: Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/GweGbYkO > more #BigSociety bollocks… < #ukpolitics #Cameron
- Jill Hayward
More evidence that Cameron can't do the basics http://t.co/EGa5joHB via @donpaskini He can't tell difference between a grant and a loan.
- Julian Block
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Janet Graham
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Paul Dicken
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- malcolm
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- malcolm
RT @Burntdish: RT @libcon: Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/GweGbYkO > more #BigSociety bollocks… < #ukpolitics #Cameron
- Watching You
Cameron's latest Big Society blunder http://t.co/Bevx7Zep
- Steve
More evidence that Cameron can't do the basics http://t.co/EGa5joHB via @donpaskini He can't tell difference between a grant and a loan.
- Alex Braithwaite
Cameron’s latest Big Society blunder | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/2rRg5TIK via @libcon
- richardbrennan
Cameron’s latest Big Society blunder | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/f1QE7I5K via @libcon
- Sue Davies
Cameron’s latest Big Society blunder | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/k0R2HOWb via @libcon
- Think Left
Cameron’s latest Big Society blunder | Liberal Conspiracy http://t.co/k0R2HOWb via @libcon
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