Big Society's Big Mouth Powered by v

As children and students enter a crucial stage of their lives where they are expected to work for themselves, cater for themselves and indeed learn new things by themselves; I strongly think that it is important that independence is invigorated and encouraged throughout the younger generation. Many challenges await them and it is largely important that they must be seen as the worlds future, strength and power - they must be given the correct incentive towards achievement and success.  Read less

The Big Society is surely Camerons way of carrying on what his predecessors started in following a neo -liberal ideology. It is this theory of hollowing out the state. Where before public services were offered by a large public workforce, we now have private companies fulfilling public service tasks (e.g. PPI School building and management, PPI hospitals etc, public waste disposal by private companies). The idea in the Big Society, is to extend this 'hollowing out of the state' to the volunteer sector. It gives a role to NGOs - which I imagine would be able to bid for funding from the government to carry out certain tasks. Government has changed from 'big government' directing structures, to governance - that is, enabling socio –political interactions between government departments, the private sector - and now it is hoped, with NGOs too. Its a good idea, unfortunately Cameron and this government have failed to communicate the idea effectively and in simple terms to a public who do not study politics.  Read less

a recent report from the IDMU (independant drug monitoring unit) shows that 6.2 billion pounds could be generated annually in tax revenues of cannabis sales. any claim that the legalisation or decriminalisation of cannabis would cost the nhs over 6.2 billion or anything close to 1 billion for that matter is entirely false. The link between cannabis and psychosis is 0.13% at worst. if these facts seem unbelievable please research yourself. Britain has one of the highest rates of drug use in its younger generations in europe. Comparable is holland with one of the lowest rates. when is our government going to listen to its people? 500 million pounds alone is spent on criminalising cannabis alone, yet 97 magistrates courts are to be closing this year due to a lack of 47 million? This is madness in my eyes. Read less

currently the uk government claims that cannabis in its 'raw' herbal form has no medicinal value and classifies it as a schedule 1 drug. Gw pharmaceuticals currently have a licence to grow thousands of cannabis plants and produce tonnes of raw herbal cannabis every year, to be made into sativex, a cannabis based medicine. The government claim that sativex is different from herbal cannabis as it only contains a specific ratio of thc to cbd. This is false as sativex contains all 100+ active chemical compounds in cannabis (also known as cannabinoids). In simpler terms sativex is an oil made from herbal cannabis diluted with ethanol and with added peppermint for flavour. Firstly, id like to know when the government are going to address this issue, as it has currently been put off for over a year. Secondly, id like to add at this point that sativex, most commonly used for relief of multiple sclerosis pain and symptoms, is currently on a blanket ban of all brittish private care trusts, whilst at the same time GW pharmaceuticals are set to global this year, having allready started supllying several countries with the cannabis based medicine. People are being denied a medicine that is produced in their homeland. For the same price of a 10ml vial of sativex (£125) a similar patient residing in one of the 14 medical marijuana states of America could purchase a 50ml vial of basically the same medicine for $10.

As a young man of 22 years i can see nothing but an erosion of respect, from all citizens, towards the uk government and law enforcement occuring at an alarming rate. Due to issues like this. please at least debate the issue publicly.

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I volunteer at the Sheffield Botanical Gardens which is run by Sheffield City Council and funded partly by the Heritage Lottery Fund with support from F.O.B.S. Myself and other volunteers, F.O.B.S. etc. help out around the gardens doing gardening and other general maintanance projects including weeding, collecting leaves, mulching, pruning, planting etc. F.O.B.S. meet up pretty much every Wednesday from 10 - 12 although some come and go earlier or later, anyone wanting to do work experience or voluntary work is normally welcome but, should first contact our Curator Ian Turner or Supervisor Steve Beech to arrange it first.  Read less

Well, firstly, goodbye. I'm not 25 for much longer. I know this site is pretty much abandoned but I'm not sure where else to post this and don't really use Facebook any more.

Weirdly, I don't actually do much volunteering anymore. Anyone else found that? The lack of funding has made things almost impossible. A lot of groups and organisations don't appear to be mentioning this at all really, which seems weird. Has the effect not kicked in for others yet or are people trying to put a positive spin on things or what?

If anyone's still around it would be interesting to know what the world of volunteering is like for people right now.

Volunteering over the years has been interesting. Mostly fun. And I have had some unusual things happen through it - I met the Prime Minister, I won a holiday, I appeared on TV (I'm not saying what, it's embarrassing...) And one project I did involved me failing miserably in front of 100,000 people. It's been bizarre.

I'm not sure how it's changed my life. Various fluffy statements are thrown around about the benefits of volunteering, but it tends to be a bit simplified.

Volunteering hasn't helped me find a job, and probably won't.
It has helped my health improve. Although sometimes made it worse, due to the stress. And I've been hit in the face while volunteering (by a volunteer age over 25 btw), insulted a few times and treated like an idiot lots of times, and none of that helps.
It helped with my agoraphobia; weirdly it was the holiday I won from a volunteering website that helped in the most dramatic way, and that was quite a random thing. I hadn't been on holiday for 10 years and probably never would have gone abroad if it wasn't for winning that.
It helped me feel like a useful human being. Unemployment tends to destroy all self esteem. And I'm freakishly clever (if you don't blow your own trumpet no one else will...), but too ill to go to university or get a job, so had pretty much nothing at all to do with my brain was several years, and it's frustrating. Volunteering gave me something to work on. Although I think it's very hard for someone to make full use of their skills through volunteering: I didn't. Too many people just want volunteers to simple tasks like litter picking.
I wouldn't say volunteering made me any new friends either. Some acquaintances though, and I spent more time with people I already knew.
Did it give me a warm happy feeling inside? I'm not sure...

Have I missed any great volunteering cliches?

I'd kinda like to write a book about volunteering. Anyone else considering that? But I'm not sure, because I suspect it would be the bits that went wrong that would make the most entertaining read!

I think people often have quite a boring view of volunteering. Volunteering gets presented as "nice", and nice is bland. The world of volunteering is fascinating and bizarre and crazy and funny. It involves rewriting Black Sabbath songs and everything. And yes, sometimes being hit in the face by a pensioner, or crying all the way home from Birmingham to Leeds. Definitely not just endless tales of going to volunteer at the pet shelter and finding it "so rewarding".

Currently, the only place I volunteer is at an amateur rugby league team as a statistician and sometimes (unconventional) fundraiser. It involves rugby players; they're unique. And sometimes free chocolate. And often naked bums. I'm not as fond of that part. But I'd recommend it. Read less