Recycling the prime minister's big society 'mirage'

23 May 2011

David Cameron's latest relaunch of the Big Society is 'a mirage masquerading as a concrete reality', Unite, the largest union in the country, said today (Monday, 23 May).

The Prime Minister's repeated relaunches of his pet idea is because he thinks the public don't understand what he is saying about the Big Society. On the contrary, the public understand only too well that the Big Society is a smokescreen for cuts and job losses across the public and voluntary sectors.

Unite national officer, Rachael Maskell said: 'It is clear that the Prime Minister is floundering as charities face a £4.5bn chasm in funding that his government has inflicted.'

'Today's speech comes at a time when the sector is grappling with increasing demands for their services, exasperated by the problems of unemployment, homelessness and debt problems caused by the government's own generated downturn. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of professionals in the sector, who have the skills to help clients, are being made redundant.'

'Unless the White Paper addresses the funding crisis in a more strategic way and also the massive job losses already affecting charities, the White Paper will be no more than a White Elephant.'

'It is right that government looks at how we can make donations and volunteer more, but due to government's economic policy - people are giving less and the fall in donations is adding to the sector's crisis.'

'David Cameron's dream is a mirage masquerading as a concrete reality – what he needs to do is to sit down with leaders of the not for profit sector, including the trade unions, to seriously discuss the core issues of finance, redundancy of charity staff and increasing demand on services.'

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