From the BBC, without any apparent deliberate irony:
David Cameron has said that a Conservative government would train a 5,000-strong "neighbourhood army" to set up community groups. The Tory leader said in a speech this offered a "positive alternative to Labour's big government" approach.
"Our aim is for every adult citizen to be an active member of an active neighbourhood group," he said...
A grim document
16 hours ago
14 comments:
Sigh.
I'll second that *sigh*...
Compulsory voluntary involvement;Dave continues to disappoint.
This idea is appropriate for a swearbloggerto deal with,I think.
How about no?
I don't want to be an active member of an "active neighbourhood group". I'm quite friendly with my neighbours and we organise things quite a lot, but we don't need some prick with a sociology degree coming down organising us.
The best way to get more "civil society"? Let people keep more of their money. Because once people start to get richer, and satisfy their personal desires, they are more likely to start to help others.
I'll third that "sigh".
But at least he's not proposing to fund the community groups they run.
How does this guff even get past the policy forum stage?
AC, how do you mean he won't fund them? I quote from the article:
"The Conservatives are promising to fund the training of 5,000 full-time, professional community organisers "over the course of the next Parliament".
They say this is based on a movement in the United States which has "trained generations of community organisers, including President Obama".
... Mr Cameron said: "I don't think the state should be funding directly the community organisations, but the state can fund the training, can do some of the galvanising."
"We are determined to create a bigger society, to give people more control over their lives. We believe we need to get Britain running."
Mr Cameron also announced plans to create a "Big Society Bank", funded from unclaimed bank assets, which will "provide hundreds of millions of pounds of new finance for neighbourhood groups, charities, social enterprises and other non-governmental bodies".
Although the prospect of another 4/5 years of Brown is appalling, the idea that Cameron will go down in flames in the election is increasingly attractive.
Screw that for a lark! Dave can stuff it up the you know where...
The first man to whisper the ancient words "army of mums" I hunt him down and keeell heem.
WOAR, would that army be formed along the lines of the Monstrous Regiment of Women?
Mark, when I said he wasn't proposing to fund them, I was speaking loosely. I meant he wasn't going to actually give them taxpayers' money to run their organisations. The proposal is limited to training and providing loans from this silly Big Society Bank.
AC, sure, that's what he said. But have you never heard of 'mission creep'? Or about 'thin ends of wedges'? About how the first US soldiers sent to Vietnam were ostensibly 'military advisors'?
If the banks really have spare cash sloshing around in dormant accounts (to the extent that Labour hasn't already nicked it), then they can first repay the taxpayers all the money that they owe the taxpayers fair and square for all this bail-out malarkey.
An insane policy from an insane party that is pitching left of Brown. How insane is that?
Pretty insane I'd say.
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