Help yourselves: What can we learn from Cameron’s ‘big society’ failure?

The Bunker

Podmasters

News, Politics, Society & Culture, Government

4.6 • 984 Ratings

🗓️ 17 October 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

David Cameron pushed his “big society” plan during his time as prime minister – but it didn’t work very well. Was it always doomed to fail? Seth Thevoz speaks to Peter John, head of the School of Politics and Economics at King’s College London, about the history and legacy of this policy position – as well as the lessons we can learn from it. “The big society didn’t seem to stack up with wider policy changes.” “The critics were out really from the start.” “It proved to be embarrassing, and became a target of satire. It was easily targeted and ridiculed.” www.patreon.com/bunkercast Written and presented by Seth Thévoz. Audio editor: Alex Rees. Managing editor: Jacob Jarvis. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. THE BUNKER is a Podmasters Production. Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved
0:05.5	photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.
0:11.8	Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?
0:13.0	I loved going to college.
0:14.0	It's good you can retrain and do something.
0:16.0	Yeah, yeah.
0:17.0	Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.
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0:30.0	Pets brings so much joy.
0:32.0	From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa.
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0:55.5	after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker I'm Seth Table. We're all in this together. David Cameron's statement after the financial crash of 2008 to try and show a more caring, sharing Conservative Party.
1:20.0	Cameron's solution was the big society, a bold new spirit of voluntarism where individuals
1:25.7	would volunteer in the community taking up the slack from the state.
1:29.0	The results were, widely ridiculed, with even one of the government's own pilot areas, Liverpool, pulling out the program after less than a year.
1:36.3	The big society was quietly shelved after a series of critical reports.
1:40.7	But what can we learn from this bold experiment?
1:43.4	Here to shed some light on it is Peter John, Professor of Public Policy and
1:47.2	head of the School of Politics and Economics at King's College London.
1:50.2	Welcome to the bunker, Peter.
1:51.2	Thank you and thank you for inviting me.
	...

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