国际英语新闻:British PM unveils flagship policy of "Big Society"
"It has turned able, capable individuals into passive recipients of state help with little hope for a better future. It has turned lively communities into dull, soulless clones of one another. So we need to turn government completely on its head," he added.
The "Big Society" plan will delight Cameron's Liberal Democrat coalition partners, and sees him revealing his colors as something of a liberal himself. "Let me briefly explain what the Big Society is. You can call it liberalism. You can call it empowerment. You can call it freedom. You can call it responsibility. I call it the Big Society."
The plan will start in four areas across the country, the largest of which is the city of Liverpool.
Cameron outlined what it could be used for, "From devolving budgets to street-level, to developing local transport services, taking over local assets such as a pub, piloting open-source planning, delivering broadband to local communities, generating their own energy and here, in Liverpool, building a volunteer program so they can keep local museums open for longer."
Projects so far signed up for the Big Society including museum volunteers seeking to keep their museums open longer, a group seeking to buy the local pub in a rural area as a community asset, and a group wanting to put Internet broadband into its area.
Money could also be given to groups from areas as small as a street, for them to decide what to spend it on.
Cameron said the "Big Society" was "about a huge culture change, where people, in their everyday lives, in their homes, in their neighborhoods, in their workplace, don't always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face but instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities."
The "Big Society" idea first hit the headlines during the general election campaign, but members of Cameron's Conservative party criticized it as being too ill-defined, and there was little recognition of it among voters with only a third claiming to have heard of it.
Against a background of deep government budget cuts, there is also a hope among members of the government that the big society will also help cut costs.
The main opposition party, Labor, was quick to criticize the idea as a means of cutting public services.
Ed Miliband, a former Cabinet minister and one of the five contenders for the Labor leadership left vacant after the defeat and resignation of Gordon Brown at the general election, said " Cameron's government is cynically attempting to dignify its cuts agenda by dressing up the withdrawal of support with the language of reinvigorating civic society."
Trade unions were also unconvinced. Dave Prentis, the general secretary of one of the largest unions Unison which represents many public sector workers, said "Make no mistake, this plan is all about saving money, and it will cost even more jobs and lead to more service cuts.
"The government is simply washing its hands of providing decent public services and using volunteers as a cut-price alternative."
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