Just over 2 years ago in May 2010, the election in the UK ended with a coalition between the Conservative and Liberal parties. One of the flagship policies of the (majority of the coallition) conservative party was what they called The Big Society. For a while this phrase was used over and over again with the assumption that everyone knew exactly what it was about. And to a certain degree it is still being bandied around.

Below you can see the coalition leader and Prime Minister, David Cameron, next to one of their Big Society signs.

David Cameron. Image taken from http://www.hackneycitizen.co.uk

Several times i’ve read articles or listened to interviews about what the Big Society is about and also heard people sound confused not knowing what it is.

What the Government want us to believe it is:
Bringing Society together by giving more power to the communities that make them up (or something like that)

But to me it is simply a means of not paying into public sector employment and making the everyday person volunteer to do a job for free so that they can pass their austerity measures to make cutbacks right to the bone.
Read the wikipedia page for more info.

And the other day I think I read an article in the evening standard that sums it up perfectly and I can’t find it online so here’s a post from the Jewish Chronicle about the same thing instead:

Hampstead Garden Suburb to be taken over by Volunteers – opened by Jonathan Ross

The Government wants to save money on libraries by selling them off, along with everything in them and getting rid of the staff who work in them.
The locals protest about the loss of the library to the society and find the volunteers to work the library for free.

Big Society sure it’s good for the community coming together.
But to me the truth is all about the Big Money Saver?
I’ll let you make up your own mind