UK Prime Minister David Cameron's Grand Vision for the "Big Society"

I admit I was naive. I thought the UK Conservative Party actually meant it when it said it would reduce deficit by slashing the departmental budgets by as much as 25%. I thought maybe, just maybe, the UK's businesses would actually become more competitive when the government stopped wasting resources and capital and let private businesses and citizens decide what to do with their money.

Wrong.

Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron is going the way of Progressive Left - Lindon Johnson ("Great Society") and Barack Obama (community organizing), with a new twist: he wants to achieve his "Big Society" vision by community organizing effort by non-profits directed by his government, but fund that effort by raiding dormant bank accounts in the UK held by private citizens. The raided funds goes to his Big Society Bank, and he will dispense money to foster community organizing throughout the country as he and his bureaucrats see fit.

UK's Telegraph reports:

David Cameron sets out Big Society plan (7/19/2010 Telegraph UK)

"David Cameron has issued an invitation for communities across the country to take over responsibility for services ranging from libraries to housing developments.

"In a speech setting out his vision for the “Big Society,” which he described as the mass transfer of power from the state to “people power,” the Prime Minister said that it was his “mission” to create a generation of volunteers.

"Four areas in diverse parts of the country have been chosen to form a “vanguard” in realising Mr Cameron's dream of “people power”. [...groan...]

"The four – the greater London borough of Sutton and Cheam, the leafy Berkshire council of Windsor and Maidenhead, rural Eden Valley in Penrith, Cumbria, and the metropolitan city of Liverpool - were chosen after they petitioned Downing Street to start their own projects.

"They will be the first to be invited to submit applications to the Big Society Bank.

"The four pioneer communities will be helped by dedicated civil servants who will give expert advice if they encounter legal problems or bureaucratic obstacles.

"Officials will also identify local residents with a particular aptitude for taking part in Big Society projects – they will then receive training to become community organisers, motivating their neighbours to take part in action schemes.

"They will also be able to draw on the Big Society Bank, which, Mr Cameron promised, would use “every penny of dormant bank and building society account money” to help finance social enterprises, charities and voluntary groups.

"Accounts left untouched for at least 15 years will be channelled to good causes. Over time, Mr Cameron said, the Bank would provide “hundreds of millions of pounds” to Big Society projects, with money starting to be distributed from April." [The article continues.]

The law that allows confiscation of dormant bank accounts already exists, though the banks have been reluctant to use it.

The article gives examples of "community organizing" efforts envisioned by the "Big Society" which is to be build upon the money confiscated (or stolen, if you prefer) bank accounts under the direction of the government bureaucrats:

- Help finance social enterprises [called "social entrepreneuring" in the US], charities, volunteer groups (Sound familiar?)

- Local residents to be picked by government officials to serve as "community organizers" to organize their neighbors (Sound familiar? The US already has a law passed April last year, and it's called "Serve America Act of 2009".)

- Public services to be run by "volunteers" (like this?)

- Power to buy out "local assets" (Sound familiar?)

- Bringing broadband Internet to local communities (Sound even more familiar?)

Peggy Noonan's plea to David Cameron to not follow Barack Obama clearly fell on the totally deaf ear of the Prime Minister. He is following every single step, and more.

Cameron's Big Society doesn't seem much different from the Third Way advocated by Labour (Tony Blair, Gordon Brown are the most recent examples).

When he meets Obama this week, he may even inspire the community-organizer-in-chief to start grabbing money from accounts held by private citizens.

Japan's prime minister, who was also aping Obama's every single policy, didn't last a year. That's the only hope I have for British businesses and citizens - that Cameron won't last a year if he copies Obama.

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Showdown in Chicago, to Counter "Tea Party" Goers?

Counter or co-opt...

This is a curious site I ran into on an online message board.

Showdown in Chicago - Put People First!

The home page has this to say:

"The same financial institutions that caused the economic crisis and took billions in taxpayer bailouts are back to earning incredible profits. Meanwhile, Americans face shrinking pensions, rising foreclosures and unemployment, state budget cuts, predatory lending, outrageous overdraft fees, and sky-high credit card interest rates.

"The American people want oversight, accountability and common-sense financial reform NOW. This is the classic David vs. Goliath fight, with Wall Street spending millions and millions on lobbying to defeat reforms that would protect the American people and our economy.

"JOIN US on October 25-27 for a series of demonstrations when thousands of Americans - retirees, farmers, workers, homeowners, renters, students, clergy, and small business owners - come together on the streets of Chicago to demand a banking system that puts the American people first and a Congress that makes it happen! Take a look at the Showdown schedule of events, stay informed about event details and join our mailing list, and fill out the Showdown inquiry form to tell us when and where you want to plug into the fight!"


It sort of sounds like it has borrowed a page from Tea Party movement that the left-leaning sites and blogs have attacked. So I clicked on "About Us" page, and I found this list as their "allies":

My eyes were drawn to AFL-CIO and SEIU. Hmmm.

Then I looked at "Our Solution" page. Top of the list is "Modernize the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA)". They have now removed the link to their detailed solution proposal, but when I first looked at the page it had such a link and I copied it:

http://www.ntic-us.org/images/cra%20policy%20paper%20ii.pdf

The paper has this as the title:


The site turns out to be National Training and Information Center (NTIC), based in Chicago. It is "a national organizing, policy, research, and training center for grassroots community organizations dedicated to building power to reclaim our democracy and advance racial and economic justice." In other words, a community organizer.

Among their "Successes", they proudly list:

• Spearheaded efforts to pass the Community Reinvestment Act and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act in the 1970s – often referred to as the most important economic justice public policy for neighborhoods.
  
• Lead a successful and productive partnership with Fannie Mae to develop mortgage products to meet the home mortgage needs of underserved neighborhoods. To date, this 8-city partnership has resulted in $4 billion in loans to families.

In other words, they are responsible, along with the government regulators/agencies and banks, for the subprime debackle that triggered the worldwide financial crisis that tanked the stock markets and economies into recession.

And "National People's Action (NPA)" turns out to be another community organizer.

Hmmmm.

Showdown in Chicago "Our Solution" page had another link, which they later removed. It was about "Modernize Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA)", and it had the same red header with red stars. I suspect that "Solution" was also a NPA paper.

Then I saw Michael Moore as one of their "Allies".

Hmmmm.

My tentative conclusion: This may be an answer from the administration's supporters - labor unions, community organizers (if not the administration itself) to "right-wing" "racist" people of all ages who descended on Washington DC in September to hold a gigantic "Tea Party", protesting all sorts of government policies from healthcare reform to gun control to war in Afganistan.

I don't know whether all these "Allies" of Showdown in Chicago are aware of their affiliation.

Lastly, why October 25-27 for "series of demonstrations"? That's when the American Bankers Association holds its annual meeting in Chicago Sheraton Hotel. So this organization (Showdown in Chicago) could be just a one-time setup for the occasion.

But when I saw that paper's header in red, with words like "People's Action" and two red stars, and recalling one of the White House communication director's favorite philosophers (Mao Zedong), I have to say it made me feel uneasy.

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