Tim Loughton responds to 'Daily Telegraph' story on the Big Society
The Children's Minister writes in response to the Daily Telegraph article, 'Minister: What is the Big Society? Is it Anne Widdecombe?'.
Children’s Minister Tim Loughton delivered a speech to Community Service Volunteers on Tuesday, 9 November 2010. The opening statements posed the question, ‘what is the Big Society and is it a good society?’. This was followed up by a story in the Daily Telegraph titled ‘Minister: What is the Big Society? Is it Anne Widdecombe?’.
In response to the story, Tim Loughton wrote this letter:
I am disappointed that the focus is on one paragraph in a speech I made to Community Service Volunteers (CSV) last night [earlier this week]. I posed the question ‘what is the Big Society and is it a good society?’ Having set out the nature of the problem in defining the Big Society on page one, I then spent a further 17 pages articulating what it actually means and how it can transform the lives of millions of our citizens, clearly, optimistically and enthusiastically. I ended by referring to the excellent CSV as a manifestation of the Big Society itself, given the huge success it has had over the last 45 years, and continues to have, engaging so many volunteers in such a wide range of imaginative and fantastic projects which encapsulate the innate British characteristics of altruism and generosity.
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