When he was offered the job of “Big Society Tsar” for 3 days a week, Nat Wie thought he was to get a salary. (Apparently it’s revoltingly common to talk money, so no one mentioned it at all, until the day before he started the job, when he was told it was a voluntary post.) 
He had a desk in the Cabinet Office, and a peerage, but no salary. Part of the Big Society. That'll teach him to go around trusting government ministers.
So the noble lord has had to reduce his commitment to the Big Society to two days a week instead of three, because he needs to earn some money to feed his kids, pay his mortgage and...stay alive.
Much of Mr Wei's work involves how to free “ordinary” people (that’s like you and me) from the daily grind, so that they can devote more of their time to charity or voluntary work and get involved in their communities under David Cameron’s "Big Society" plans.
But no one much in
the ranks of us “ordinary people” has heard of him, and it seems that he has not actually made much headway in the job of selling the idea of the “Big Society” to the public. After all who really knows what it is about? The scheme is, it is said, facing Whitehall resistance and the stretched capacities of local authorities.
One of the problems that strikes me is that by and large “hard working British families” are very busy working hard, bringing up their kids, digging their gardens, keeping warm, trying to find enough money to get by, without starting some new voluntary activity. People with jobs are trying hard to hang on to them in an atmosphere of overwhelming “presentism”, and those who don’t are working hard to find one.
There are people, of course, who already do get involved in the local community. Community councillors “up and down this country" are
working for nothing; and many people very quietly go about the business of looking after elderly neighbours, doing a bit of shopping, visiting with them, taking them out for a run in the car...
And in the leafy villages of the counties and in the suburbs there are ladies and possibly some gentlemen who serve on the bench (in England), organize the girl guides, the gymkhana, the dog show, the village fête and the local hunt ball, and join the RSVS or work for the church or for a charity shop.
Most people who have the time to do something, do something.
But not everyone has the luxury of that time. Working families (especially the HARD wo
rking ones so beloved of the politicians) have little spare time.
I hold out very little hope of success for the “Big Society” because of this. But as this is David Cameron’s own vision of Britain based, I suppose, on what he has known all his life; people with enough money to leave the drab tasks of daily living to servants, and enjoy organizing local events.
Given that I read somewhere (Daily Telegraph columnist Heffer, I think) that David Cameron had appointed around 25 personal staff to the civil service (including one for his wife, if you please), you would have thought that he could have managed a full time post and salary for the man who is supposed to make his one actual idea in government actually work.
He had a desk in the Cabinet Office, and a peerage, but no salary. Part of the Big Society. That'll teach him to go around trusting government ministers.
So the noble lord has had to reduce his commitment to the Big Society to two days a week instead of three, because he needs to earn some money to feed his kids, pay his mortgage and...stay alive.
Much of Mr Wei's work involves how to free “ordinary” people (that’s like you and me) from the daily grind, so that they can devote more of their time to charity or voluntary work and get involved in their communities under David Cameron’s "Big Society" plans.
But no one much in
the ranks of us “ordinary people” has heard of him, and it seems that he has not actually made much headway in the job of selling the idea of the “Big Society” to the public. After all who really knows what it is about? The scheme is, it is said, facing Whitehall resistance and the stretched capacities of local authorities.One of the problems that strikes me is that by and large “hard working British families” are very busy working hard, bringing up their kids, digging their gardens, keeping warm, trying to find enough money to get by, without starting some new voluntary activity. People with jobs are trying hard to hang on to them in an atmosphere of overwhelming “presentism”, and those who don’t are working hard to find one.
There are people, of course, who already do get involved in the local community. Community councillors “up and down this country" are
working for nothing; and many people very quietly go about the business of looking after elderly neighbours, doing a bit of shopping, visiting with them, taking them out for a run in the car...And in the leafy villages of the counties and in the suburbs there are ladies and possibly some gentlemen who serve on the bench (in England), organize the girl guides, the gymkhana, the dog show, the village fête and the local hunt ball, and join the RSVS or work for the church or for a charity shop.
Most people who have the time to do something, do something.
But not everyone has the luxury of that time. Working families (especially the HARD wo
rking ones so beloved of the politicians) have little spare time.I hold out very little hope of success for the “Big Society” because of this. But as this is David Cameron’s own vision of Britain based, I suppose, on what he has known all his life; people with enough money to leave the drab tasks of daily living to servants, and enjoy organizing local events.
Given that I read somewhere (Daily Telegraph columnist Heffer, I think) that David Cameron had appointed around 25 personal staff to the civil service (including one for his wife, if you please), you would have thought that he could have managed a full time post and salary for the man who is supposed to make his one actual idea in government actually work.
Pics: 韋鳴恩 in his robes; How the Big Society works; For the thick ones, another explanation of how the Big Society works; Call me Big Dave Society; Nat Wie, out of fancy dress, who is, I'm told, actually a nice bloke despite the company he keeps in the Cabinet office.
