Read all about it in tomorrow’s Times. [Ed: We didn’t make the cut 🙂 ]
The Shadow Chancellor doesn’t get it though, a bit like his predecessor.
He says
Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, at an event in Nottingham, said government money was needed to make a voluntary civic society work, otherwise it was “just a lottery”.
“And if you’re lucky enough to have someone who will volunteer, fine, but if you’re not, hard luck, and that’s not a fair society,” he said.
The problem with his simplistic assessment is that many – three quarters according to Francis Maude – voluntary organisations receive nothing from the Government, but Ed Balls thinks that they should do and that the Govt should step in to fund the voluntary organisation / charity / whoever.
Big Government – typified by Balls – destroys Big Society by creating unnecessary dependency, not by creating sustainable communities that don’t need Govt handouts to operate successfully.