THE UK is on the cusp of a revolution every bit as far

reaching as the privatisation of nationalised industries

under Margaret Thatcher. Who provides our public

services and how we pay for them is set to fundamentally

change. However, the Big Society is not an idea singularly

inspired by, or attributable to, David Cameron or our Lib

Dem/Conservative Coalition Government.

The concept of the volunteer big society lies firmly

in New Labour thinking and was proposed as early as

2005. The Labour General Election manifesto, May 2005,

included, "We believe that enterprises in the mutual and

co-operative sector have an important role to play in the

provision of local services, from health to education, from

leisure to care for the vulnerable." Then just months after

Tony Blair secured a third term of government for himself

and New Labour an eight page Observer supplement

entitled Business Phenomenon of the Century(11.11.05),

states "The Government wants social enterprises to run

public services in an outsourced welfare state."

Labours Baroness Thornton, chief executive of the

Social Enterprise Coalition, said, "The government is very

committed to open markets in public services," and,

"Many volunteer social enterprises work in fields where

they could take on health, education and other functions

traditionally provided in the UK by government." To

enable speedy development of this sector of the economy

New Labour created a new legal business entity,

community interest companies (CICs). Health secretary

Patricia Hewitt lead the drive for growth of the social

enterprise CIC sector. Just 18 months later The Dilke

Hospital and Lydney Memorial Hospital were threatened

with closure.

Social Enterprises are heirs to the mutual interest

and co-operative society movements of the 19th century.

They are businesses in the voluntary third sector; not

privately owned making profits for shareholders nor

solely a state owned or funded service, but a not-for-

profit charity based organisation whereby the gains are

measured in terms of common good with profits

reinvested in the delivery of the service. In 2005 some

500,000 people were in paid employment and 200,000

were working voluntarily in the sector.

David Cameron's 2010 version of the social

enterprise, CIC's for delivery of services by non

government organisations, has a distinct private

enterprise component. His Big Society is described as,

"moving power to local communities" and "offering choice

and opportunities for local communities to deliver the

services they want," but it's also clear that services

currently delivered by the government will, under the big

society, be outsourced to private enterprise companies.

Unlike the traditional mutual interest and co-operative

organisations new hybrid private profit making CICs, with

the tax benefits of charity status, will be the management

organisation while the workforce will be volunteers.

We already have some form of CIC planned to run

our local health services because under New Labour our

local hospitals were cynically and unjustifiably threatened

with closure driving local people towards "an opportunity"

to establish a social enterprise, a community interest

company. The outcomes so far are unclear and

controversial. Large sums of local taxpayers money was

paid by our district council to a private firm of health

service consultants, to guide the business plan for our

Dilke and Lydney hospitals. I hope local people will be

very careful not to end up paying for private health

services again.

We demand a clear and definitive statement from the

local Primary Care Trust and the Forest of Dean District

Council as to the proposed business status of our local

health services.

– Phil Saunders, Bream.