Voluntary Redundancies

I am sure we all remember the cuddly community component of Daveybloke's Big Society thingy, whereby voluntary organisations were meant to take over those functions of the hated public sector which could not profitably be disposed of elsewhere. Charities which have taken over the running of public services have inherited pension liabilities and are also receiving less public funding, which means that up to a thousand could go bust despite being financially stable. This will leave the field clear for private companies and national organisations, which fits in rather neatly with the Ashcroft-Murdoch idea of public service and the Eric Pickles vision of localism. Hence, although to the homeless, the mentally ill and other shirkers the whole business may appear one more poisonous coalition fiasco, it seems that for the right people Daveybloke's Big Society thingy is going approximately as well as George the Progressively Osborne's economic recovery.