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The Big Swindle

February 14th 2011

Deborah Stuttard

Deborah (Debs) Stuttard is a senior account manager at Marketecture. She comes from an in-house background as a marketing manager, so is ideally placed to understand and address the day-to-day client frustratons and challenges. A former politics graduate she is often found ranting on all things political. Sorry about that!

Our politicians don’t half like a catchy slogan. And concise and memorable, Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ is the current rhetorical darling. Hitting our broadsheets and telly boxes just as we’re all looking for a little help to get our ‘broken society’ back on track, it has all the hallmarks of being studied by fresh-faced politics students in years to come.

Of course, political slogans don’t always stay the course (just like some of our political leaders). But unlike Blair’s ‘Third Way’ (remember that one? No? You’re not alone.) with the rest of the Government jumping on the Big Society bandwagon, it seems that this punchy little soundbite may just have legs.

In case you’ve been living under a box, the Big Society, is our PM’s mission to get us all more socially active. To encourage us to be nicer to our neighbours, help a granny across the road, volunteer at the local library (assuming it’s still open), that kind of thing. How very warm and fuzzy.

Of course it has nothing to do with trying to deflect us from the real political issues of the day. You know – the mass spending cuts and job losses we’re all looking forward to. Nothing at all to do with the fact that Government funding is being utterly slashed for many of our voluntary groups and community projects. No siree.

A cynic I may be, but all I see is a not so subtle PR stunt. It sounds good I’ll grant you. Of course we should all play an active role in making our world a better place. Who can argue that if more of us spent an hour volunteering each week rather than watching Take Me Out, then we’d all be better off? But it’s not going to happen is it?

The thing is there is already an army of unpaid volunteers out there working towards the common good. But there are many more of us who simply don’t have the time/can’t be bothered/would rather throw cash at the problem* (*delete as appropriate). So when it fails, it will be our fault, not our Governments. They may have helped desecrate our public service funding, but we will be the ones who didn’t get involved.

Shame on us.

Clever PR it may be, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.