The head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales said Catholics were afraid the Coalition was “washing its hands” of its responsibilities to communities and expecting volunteers to fill the gap.
“It is all very well to deliver speeches about the need for greater voluntary activity, but there needs to be some practical solutions,” he said.
“At the moment the Big Society is lacking a cutting edge. It has no teeth.”
The UK’s “Big Society” will likely be about as salutary as this nation’s “Great Society.”
Actually, Caedmon, in intent at least they are very different. Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society was a drive to overcome racism and urban poverty through great sluices of government cash. The resulting combination of having to fund the Vietnam war and this program(me) of social engineering drove the US into inflation and the dollar into a slide. The UK intention is to encourage voluntarism, a sense of civic duty and communal initiatives. Laudable in intent. We wait to see how it works out.
Did I read incorrectly the complaint of the Bishop of Bath and Wells that certain budget cuts in the UK would adversely affect the “Big Scoiety” propram?