David Cameron seems to be right into The Big Society dream which isn't a very original idea. The Church and a million other generous voluntary organisations have been doing it for ever.
But those of us who have been doing the Big Society all the way through Thatcherism who made it a policy of doing away with society and steering everyone towards aggressive individualism are really getting a bit scunnered when everything we do that is defined as 'Big Society' is made harder and harder because of government policy and austerity. Does David Cameron really know what it is like to do Big Society stuff?
Please, sir, help us do what you want us to do. We're good at it but everything from VAT to OSCAR from PAT testing to a whole host of other regulations are not just eating away at our income that allows us to do Big Society ideas, but is wolfing its way through an ever reducing budget. Even our Gift Aid is being slashed further because the transition period is over and our potential to benefit from Gift Aid will drop much further come April.
I'm not asking for the church and other voluntary organisations to be excluded from health and safety regulations and all the measures that keep people secure and safe but to free up some money that could help us out in doing the admin and regulatory stuff we need to do that milks us. For example finance the local authority to employ someone who can do everyone's PAT tests for free; restore a higher rate of Gift Aid so we don't lose a whack of income in April, free us up from the VAT rise that has been in place since January on the services we pay for and equipment we need or we will be out of business before you're in opposition again.
We live to do Big Society. Indeed, you, the government, pay us to do it becasue we do it better than you, but every good we do seems to be taxed, cut, or expected to be done on less and less where we have to carry a greater and great burden of regulations. An austerity budget surely isn't meant to make us more austere with our care and support and big-society-building but that is exactly what is happening.
It is very expensive being a member of a church or voluntary organisation. Very expensive indeed. But I think we too are too big to fail. If you gave us even 1% of what the banks have been given, we'd give you 101% in return and the whole of society would benefit. Let us prove it to you. Trust us. You can. And that's not just a strap line. That's a fact.
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