I dunno, something about a Big Society?

Welcome, one and all, to the "Big Society". Don't ask me what it is, because I honestly have no clue. Apparently, that's the point? I don't know, but what I do know is that the jist of it is that we all contribute a bit of effort to make everything lovely. How nice! However, one problem I've noticed is that I'm not really sure if I'd be a lot of help to this volunteer force. Unless, that is, sarcasm and Xbox is in need on any particular day. That aside, I do think that if it works as suggested, it would be quite nice. There's a number of factors though, that could scupper the whole deal, and the biggest factor... is us.

On Saturday, like a good lad, I helped an old couple do up their garden. Is it fun? No. Is it rewarding? sort of. Is it messy? Oh yes! The small amount of money I received from doing this good deed merely went to replace the gloves and trousers I'd ruined. Could have had a lie-in, but noooooo...

Whatever. On this particular Saturday, I'd taken a break to head off to the nice new cafe at Sainsbury's for a hearty lunch. Imagine the scene: I'm sitting there, chatting to Mrs Max about nothing relevant, when my Jacket Potato with Tuna is interrupted by a harmonic drumming and endless screech of a toddler, sitting in one of those ghastly plastic tubs with a booster-seat on top. The child was doing his absolute upmost to be as noisy and annoying as possible. Now, I like to think that if I had kids, I'd be that idealised parent that would never let them be a pain to anyone, anywhere, so you can imagine my amazement when the reaction from the parents was the sort of reaction you'd get if devil-child was replaced by a nice harp, and a corresponding harpist. They chatted, broke off to look at devil-child, both went "awwww" and carried on chatting. I'll save the Astrix's and not write down what I thought at this precise time, but I was truly blown away at the fact that these people clearly were unable or unwilling to spot that their breathing noise-bucket was annoying the hell out of everyone else. Now, I'd like to be able to tell you that at this point that I marched over to them and told them what for, to the cheers of the rest of the diner that we could all now eat our processed food in peace! Unfortunately, I did what most British people do: Sat there and muttered under my breath.

And this is the problem! There's a strange divide of people in society: those who already do a lot to help, and those who simply exist to annoy the rest of humanity. I suspect the former group would be stretched to do more, and the latter will only cause a mess that the former group will have to clean up. All of this is compounded by the fact that our Britishness seems to stop us from getting out and whooping these fools in the latter group upside the head.

So what do we do about it?

Here's what I suggest: Rather than suggesting we all volunteer to clean up our parks, why not use the money to educate people in the art of not making a mess of it in the first place? The onus as of late seems to be that we should chip in to fix problems together, yet nobody seems to have stopped to ask how do we stop the problem from occurring the first time round! For example, there's £1.3Tn of outstanding consumer debt. That's 13 TRILLION! I've met lots of people in their 20's who still don't know how to write a cheque, or run a bank account. So why has nobody suggested some kind of financial education in the National Curriculum? Well, I'm suggesting it now. Luckily, MoneySavingExpert is also on the case.

Hopefully, it'll mean that the country is better suited to any problems in the future so we won't have to suggest volunteers to clean up the park, meaning I've got more time to build allotments for Grannies, and more money to spend in nicer restaurants, far far away from the screaming brats!

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