After a busy week in Parliament and I am attending a conference this morning organised by Bury’s Christian-Muslim Forum on the topic of faith and the Big Society to be held at Holy Cross College. I am speaking to explain exactly what the Big Society is and what it means in practice.
Later, I will be attending and addressing a Conference of North-West Conservatives which fortunately is being held at The Village Hotel in Bury this year so I will not have too far to travel. In addition to our Three MEP’s from the North West several of my fellow MP’s and Party speakers the main guest speaker is the Foreign Secretary the Rt. Hon William Hague M.P.
David Nuttall 
Alan,
There is a “Big Society” it’s just that the likes of us and 99.999% of the rest of the country can’t afford to join it.
To join the Big Society or, as it’s described in Conservative Party donor literature the Leaders Group, you’ll need to donate approx. £50,000.
Members of this group are given numerous opportunities to meet “David Cameron and other senior figures from the Conservative Party at dinners, post-PMQ lunches, drinks receptions, election result events and important campaign launches”.
That’s the Big Society for you Alan so, come and join us!
Get your hand in your pocket and donate, you know it’ll be worth it!
Joe
p.s. My donation cheque is in the post… possibly the best 50 grand I ever spent… Champagne, canapes and Cameron here we come!
Mr Nuttall,
I wish I’d known about that conference, I must pay more attention to your diary, as I and I’m sure many of your constituents have been waiting from someone who can “explain exactly what the Big Society is and what it means and will mean in practice”.
I think we all understand the Big Cuts, what they mean and what they will mean in practice but nobody understands the Big Society unless of course they are one and the same?
I went to the Conservative party website front page for an explantion (exact or otherwise) expecting to see at least one link or reference to the Big Society.
Eh? Nothing!
No mention, not even listed on the home page under Policy, so I clicked through to the Policies page, must be here surely?
Eh? Nothing!
In fact there’s only one reference to the Big Society on the whole website, it’s on the Blue Blog page, half way down on the right, and even then it’s just a del.icio.us link to an Observer article.
Party HQ isn’t exactly making a song and dance about it on their website are they Mr Nuttall?
There is of course bigsociety.co.uk but that can’t be anything to do with the Tories as it appears to be completely independant.
Just as well, it’s embarrasingly banal.
So, I’m sure all your constituents would love to read YOUR exact explanation of the Big Society, can you help us with this?
Regards,
Joe
Thank you for your swift reply which was AGAIN without any usefull comment, and yes you are correct about me not voting for the tories and i will do my best to ensure that others don’t either. You did not comment on any points i made apart from the fact you have ‘raised the issue’ re Fairfield in the house before or the point i made about lansley telling lies to Parliament re the number of doctors, 3,500 new to the NHS. I could of course put all the points i and others have put to you, and failed to receive a proper answer, in the Bury Times and see what the reaction from the people of Bury would be.I appreciate the fact you run a blog, and you are a busy man but i would warn you that the people of Bury are not stupid and can see through any attempt to push matters under the carpet and fail to give us answers to the points put to you.Just as a point of interest i was , along with mike connoly quoted in the Guardian about a week ago relating to the promise to keep open Fairfield Baby Unit and as far as lansley is concerned reneging on that promise just to get votes, a little bit of notoriety at last eh David.
MR NUTTALL, there is no such thing as the “big society” as lauded by this useless prime minister, who says so, why his beloved thatcher who he said in prime ministers questions he agreed with everything she had done for this country.To remind people what she said her view was that there is no such thing as society, just the individual.I have just been watching the health secretary in the house, an event unusual in itself during a bill,but was forced to appear by cameron because of the mess he is making of the NHS bill and the uproar he has caused by his rediculous and unwanted changes to the NHS.Andrew Lansley stated there were 3,500 new doctors since the tories came to power. How many lies do the tories expect us to swallow, i didn’t know a DR. could be trained in 11 months, some going even for the tories.I’m also intrigued as to why the amount of ‘new money’ going into the NHS has gone up to £11.5bn from £10.7bn as stated in parliament, where is it coming from if we are so skint. Patient choice is something this pathetic government is saying they have brought in, not so because this very morning, 4 April, i was given the choice of where i wanted to go to see a consultant and when i asked how long this had been in operation i was told at least 18 months, oh well another tory lie nailed. At the start of his statement lansley said he was having a ‘natural break’ and the pause would enable the government to ‘listen and take into account peoples views.This again is another device aimed at putting of the decision to close Fairfield Baby Unit or maybe he has heard of the Salford couple who are taking legal action against the secretary of state for failing to ‘LISTEN’. The decision will be made sometime after they have listened and consulted but will take some time, after the may elections methinks, or am i being cynical. Now to get to a very important point MR NUTTALL why did you remain slumped in your seat and fail to ask the obvious question re fairfield, maybe it was because you knew before hand about the ‘pause’, something other MPs picked up on. If you fail to answer these points in your blog maybe you will answer them in the BURY TIMES where people will wonder why you are silent on questions put to you on here.. I await your answer but do not expect much of one but i must remind you you are answerable to the voters and that we have a wright to know
Hi Alan,
Thank-you as ever for anothe long comment.
Actually most people congratulate me on the fact that I do take the time and trouble to reply to peoples emails personally including the comments possted on my blog. They have also noted that I have raised the issue of Fairfield on more than one occasion on the floor of the House of Commons including with the Prime Minister.
By the way would I be right in thinking you will not be voting Conservative in the local elections next month?
Kind regards
David
Dear Mr Nuttall
I have noticed on the information sheet sent to me explaining council tax expenditure that Bury council has increased the pension fund contribution from £19.9 million in 2010 to £20 million for 2011,according to the figures full time staffing levels have dropped from 6139 to 5755 which means an average of 7.25% per person increase in contributions compared with last year,with so many cuts in the pipeline to services etc I can,t understand were the extra money has come from to to give this 7.25% increase to of all things Bury councils pension fund instead of using it to minimize cuts.
I would be interested to hear your comments.
Regards Ian Rothwell.
Hi
I will look into this and try and find an answer from the Council for you.
David
Hi Ian,
Thank-you for your comment.
I will reply by email.
David