The Big Society continues to be the underlying theme of this blog.
Sitting in a cafe in Genoa enjoying a Caffe Corretto, reading the weekend papers and watching the passing traffic both pedestrian and motorised it was easy to reflect on what a big society could mean not only for me but for all.
A truly big society would be too big for small minded nationalism.
It would be a society in which wealth was shared more equitably, where people could shop and eat and drink and heat their homes and travel without resorting to begging, borrowing or stealing to stretch already stretched budgets.
It would be society where culture was enjoyed, where health care was available when needed and where prevention was always preferred to cure.
A society where children could play and learn without fear, where people would share and learn about other people their cultures and faiths.
A truly big society would be a society where respect for others was so deeply ingrained that it would be possible for all to sit at a pavement table and sip their coffee in peace.
But now the idea of bigness is having to be rethought in the light of an avalanche of small minded policies.
And the idea of society similarly is having to be rethought as the ties holding the nations that comprise the United Kingdom are weakened and the Con-Dems chase other parties in a race to the right.
Of course the Lib Dems are now trying to establish a separation between their current manifesto policies and the policies they have supported and pursued for the past five years, a strategy which won't wash, at least with this commentator!
The review of the past five years is a list of broken promises, austerity, rewards for the already rich taken directly from the pockets of the poorest as the welfare budget has been systematically reduced under the guise of making work pay?
As though zero hours contracts, low wages, part time jobs and benefit sanctions represent encouragement?
But the chorus of nay sayers in business and the right wing media continues to drown out the voice of those demanding justice.
Will the Labour parties policies actually result in what we are told they will?
All the evidence suggests that an unequal society is an inefficient society, an unfair society and a society that can no longer be called 'big' because it loses any sense of the large and spiritual ideas that hold communities together.
At the heart of the call for Scottish Independence lie the values of justice and fairness which should bind societies together, but which now can be seen to be so divisive south of the border.
In the promised big society we might have expected a certain sense of brother's/sister's keeperliness to hold people to together in common cause but as the inequality that has been consciously introduced has infected society so many of the indicators of disaffection's have increased.
As Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have illustrated in the book The Spirit Level: almost every indicator from life expectancy to mental illness, violence to illiteracy is affected by how equal or unequal a society is.
As the con-dems have pursued their policy of austerity we have experienced an increasing gap between those with and those without.
Yet again and again we have been shown that in such a society all become losers both rich and poor alike.
The difference of course is that some will move their money (in bricks of cash?), their residence and their contribution to live offshore or on their private island only appearing once a year at Davos to flaunt their wealth.
In Europe there are encouraging signs that austerity is being challenged and rejected, in Greece and in Spain, the response to increased job insecurity for many, the stress of managing each day on reduced domestic budgets against a background of increasing prices, youth unemployment and increasingly stretched public services is to use the ballot box as a referendum calling for change.
Of course as the EEC has enlarged the centre has increased its power and influence, its no surprise that Germany and France are leading the mission to achieve a peaceful settlement in the Ukraine, leaving Britain as an increasingly peripheral nation on the sidelines.
But our marginalisation is not simply geographical we are choosing to become a smaller, less influential society, with Brexit in the background why would the centre choose to continue to treat with Britain, and if we do Brexit after a referendum, where will that leave the Scottish Parliament?
Far from ushering in, promoting or enabling a Big Society, it seems that the Con-Dems under David Cameron have succeeded in creating a much smaller society, one in which Britain's influence has declined, one in which our place in the world is less than it used to be.
But unless we wake up and smell the coffee the terrifying prospect of another five years of austerity lies ahead.
Sitting in a cafe in Genoa enjoying a Caffe Corretto, reading the weekend papers and watching the passing traffic both pedestrian and motorised it was easy to reflect on what a big society could mean not only for me but for all.
A truly big society would be too big for small minded nationalism.
It would be a society in which wealth was shared more equitably, where people could shop and eat and drink and heat their homes and travel without resorting to begging, borrowing or stealing to stretch already stretched budgets.
It would be society where culture was enjoyed, where health care was available when needed and where prevention was always preferred to cure.
A society where children could play and learn without fear, where people would share and learn about other people their cultures and faiths.
A truly big society would be a society where respect for others was so deeply ingrained that it would be possible for all to sit at a pavement table and sip their coffee in peace.
But now the idea of bigness is having to be rethought in the light of an avalanche of small minded policies.
And the idea of society similarly is having to be rethought as the ties holding the nations that comprise the United Kingdom are weakened and the Con-Dems chase other parties in a race to the right.
Of course the Lib Dems are now trying to establish a separation between their current manifesto policies and the policies they have supported and pursued for the past five years, a strategy which won't wash, at least with this commentator!
The review of the past five years is a list of broken promises, austerity, rewards for the already rich taken directly from the pockets of the poorest as the welfare budget has been systematically reduced under the guise of making work pay?
As though zero hours contracts, low wages, part time jobs and benefit sanctions represent encouragement?
But the chorus of nay sayers in business and the right wing media continues to drown out the voice of those demanding justice.
Will the Labour parties policies actually result in what we are told they will?
All the evidence suggests that an unequal society is an inefficient society, an unfair society and a society that can no longer be called 'big' because it loses any sense of the large and spiritual ideas that hold communities together.
At the heart of the call for Scottish Independence lie the values of justice and fairness which should bind societies together, but which now can be seen to be so divisive south of the border.
In the promised big society we might have expected a certain sense of brother's/sister's keeperliness to hold people to together in common cause but as the inequality that has been consciously introduced has infected society so many of the indicators of disaffection's have increased.
As Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett have illustrated in the book The Spirit Level: almost every indicator from life expectancy to mental illness, violence to illiteracy is affected by how equal or unequal a society is.
As the con-dems have pursued their policy of austerity we have experienced an increasing gap between those with and those without.
Yet again and again we have been shown that in such a society all become losers both rich and poor alike.
The difference of course is that some will move their money (in bricks of cash?), their residence and their contribution to live offshore or on their private island only appearing once a year at Davos to flaunt their wealth.
In Europe there are encouraging signs that austerity is being challenged and rejected, in Greece and in Spain, the response to increased job insecurity for many, the stress of managing each day on reduced domestic budgets against a background of increasing prices, youth unemployment and increasingly stretched public services is to use the ballot box as a referendum calling for change.
Of course as the EEC has enlarged the centre has increased its power and influence, its no surprise that Germany and France are leading the mission to achieve a peaceful settlement in the Ukraine, leaving Britain as an increasingly peripheral nation on the sidelines.
But our marginalisation is not simply geographical we are choosing to become a smaller, less influential society, with Brexit in the background why would the centre choose to continue to treat with Britain, and if we do Brexit after a referendum, where will that leave the Scottish Parliament?
Far from ushering in, promoting or enabling a Big Society, it seems that the Con-Dems under David Cameron have succeeded in creating a much smaller society, one in which Britain's influence has declined, one in which our place in the world is less than it used to be.
But unless we wake up and smell the coffee the terrifying prospect of another five years of austerity lies ahead.
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