Any by "big" he really means "small." Maybe it makes sense there but from afar is sounds like Reagan's New Federalism or as false as the Bush plan for Compassionate Conservatism. Strip away the spin and it's a program that somehow tries to glorify a budget that has been ripped to shreds by the brutal cost-cutting of the Conservative party. As the British economy falters due to the chopping, this will soon be known as the Big Lie.
Cameron denied his plans were a cover for public-spending cuts. Speaking on BBC Breakfast, before his speech at Liverpool Hope University, he said: "This is not about trying to save money, it is about trying to have a bigger, better society."
The communities secretary, Eric Pickles, said that "big society" was about getting more for less. Pickles, who accompanied Cameron to Liverpool, told Radio 4's The World at One: "Even at a time when money is tight it is still possible to find different ways of delivering. It is unashamedly about getting more for less. But it is about passing power down to folks so you can start to mould your own neighbourhood and put something back in."
Ed Miliband, the Labour leadership contender, told the same programme that "big society" heralded a return to Victorian philanthropy, with little role for the state. "This is essentially a 19th-century or US-style view of our welfare state – which is cut back the welfare state and somehow civic society will thrive," he said.
