The Big Society

[linglong]

This sort of change should not be decided by anyone bar the party in charge,let them show leadership,let them show bottle,to ask in the form of a game show it seems to me is the politics of cowardice,the politics of "you cant blame us when cripples and the old end up on the street..YOU voted for it" its disgraceful it really is.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Didn't they do an experiment on a street, where they took control of their streets budget from the council.

It had to cover all benefits, any council services they used, lighting and everything. Before it started nobody had any idea of what anyone was receiving in whatever form. Everyone had to lay everything bare and there were various things from school meals, rent, disability allowance, ema the lot. Resentment didn't take long to build up as I remember as it was removed from the budget in all it's forms. There were people in the street that it had no bearing on as they weren't receiving any, and could afford to live quite comfortably seeing it as generating the income for services, drains, lighting etc (meaning the experiment has zero effect on them bar taking part in the budget scenario) by electing that someone shouldn't get ema, or all of their rent paid etc.
The effect it would have on those people wasn't something that they were even considering, as they had no concept of how much these small amounts made to them, not for luxuries but to pay their bills.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

So voting on stuff is a great mark of freedom, just so long as you don't get to vote on stuff too frequently?

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Wigan Council did an online vote, it was worded in a way that said services would be cut if it didn't go through, it related to cutting council tax benefit, It in essence gave everyone the opportunity to cut folks benefit by £230 per year, it has gone through and the £230 is based on last years bill. Be interested to know how many actually voted or even knew about it ?

 

[The T-Dex]

Funnily enough Joe Anderson was our High Schools punishment supervisor. I got sent to something called emergency duty by him a fair few times. Was detention but worse.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Sounds like this Reidy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_budgeting

Works quite well in Porto Alegre apparently. All sorts about it here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

 

[Blue 1]

Funnily enough Joe Anderson was our High Schools punishment supervisor. I got sent to something called emergency duty by him a fair few times. Was detention but worse.

Punishment what now?

What the hell sort of role is that? It sounds terrifying!

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

Sounds like this Reidy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participatory_budgeting

Works quite well in Porto Alegre apparently. All sorts about it here

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=p...s=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

whether it works there or not, the situation now exists whereby those that don't get any council tax benefit, because they earn an amount that says they should be able to cover that bill, get to decide that someone who doesnt earn enough shouldnt get as much assistance. You know as much as i do that many will vote to do this based on whatever scrounger conspiracy is doing the rounds in the media, with no actual thought as to where that £230 will come from, not that they care. Cos we all spend it on plasmas, uggs and vanity, as well as all day sessions in the pub etc. In reality the money HAS to be found from somewhere & all we spend on is the kids, so it'll be them that lose something more than likely.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

From what I can tell, the thing in Brazil is that tax stays much the same, but folks have a choice over where it's spent, so a bit different to the thing here.