Topic: | Re:Re:What happened to Dave's Big Society? | |
Posted by: | Sam Hearn | |
Date/Time: | 03/06/15 11:15:00 |
There is a great deal of intellectual and actual substance behind both THE BIG SOCIETY and NORTHERN POWERHOUSE. May I politely suggest that those who believe that these are meaningless sound bites are either looking in the wrong place or are blinded by cynicism. However they are ultimately both just 'labels' that can be manipulated for good or ill. The phrase HARDWORKING FAMILIES is however a much more slippery customer. It is particularly dangerous when it is used to either explicitly or implicitly launch attacks on those on benefits who do not work for one reason or another (there are many legitimate reasons). The HF phrase is used to deliver truck loads of political rhetoric that all needs to be unpackaged very carefully. In an ideal world members of HARDWORKING FAMILIES should all lead happy and fulfilling lives in good quality housing with access to excellent schools and world class health care. The real world can often be very different. How politicians and the electorate respond to the gap between the reality of people's lives and their aspirations is the deep dynamic that drives our political system. Do we really wish our elderly friends and relatives to be treated with respect and our children to have the opportunity to lead materially better lives than our own - or at least to achieve their full potential? I would suggest that the word FAIR also needs to be treated with great care when it issues from politicians mouths. It is has come to mean anything that the speaker believes would be highly desirable or beneficial - so the use of this word often supports weirdly circular arguments. |