Broken Britain back to sell Big Society

“Broken Britain” is back – to justify “Big Society.”

“Broken Britain” was David Cameron’s buzz phrase of choice for a while in opposition…But it was quietly ditched (it was thought to beg some very expensive mending questions and to contrast uncomfortably with David Cameron’s optimistic outlook). Today it’s been revived in support of Big Society.

The Big Issue founder John Bird has done an evangelical build-up in the beautiful surroundings of Somerset House on the banks of a sunlit Thames.
“Too fluffy and too wispy,” was how John Bird said people saw Big Society.

David Cameron has tried to answer a question my programme boss asked me this morning – how does Big Society fit into the cuts story? Cutting the deficit, David Cameron said, was his “duty”, but Big Society was his “mission.”

The PM then rattled off a list of very big cash numbers he said the government and financial institutions could be spraying in the direction of the voluntary sector (though much of it would be commercial loans and £1bn of government contracts in areas where the state is reaching out to get non-state providers to do stuff the state currently does). But the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations reckons charities are losing more than £3.1bn by 2014-15 in council grants.

There seems to be a mis-match in numbers and scale. The Government projected spend when you factor in the lack of commercially viable voluntary projects and a healthy scepticism about large spending numbers might be a lot less than the lost funds. And the scale of outfit that takes on a big Government outsourcing (just look at the size of organisations that swept up the work helping get the unemployed back into work) is a lot bigger than the many smaller voluntary organisations currently facing closure.

The PM says he’s across this and smaller social entrepreneurs will be prioritised. He’s fired up, very versed and not looking like a man who is going to dump a project many Tory MPs think is a distraction at best and a millstone at worst.