I'm-alright-Jack @ No 10

"Isn't it strange how it's often those who 'have it all' who tell those who 'have very little' exactly how to lead their lives?" Arturo commented as he read the Daily Telegraph. I guessed I was in for an explanation. I got one.

It seems that Policy Exchange, which is according to the Telegraph a 'right of centre think tank', has just produced a pamphlet. It was written by Anthony Seldon, Master of Wellington College.

Christopher Hope writing for the Telegraph states:

A pamphlet published by Policy Exchange says that by reviving Mr Cameron’s Big Society idea will allow him to win back the trust of the British public.

The news came amid suggestions that a group of Mr Cameron’s key advisers – including his senior adviser Steve Hilton and strategy director Andrew Cooper – have been tasked with relaunching the Big Society strategy in 2012.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/8987113/David-Camerons-premiership-lacks-coherent-agenda-says-Policy-Exchange-report.html

Arturo and I thought that this 'Big Society' idea had been consigned to the dustbin. However, we now have this Master of Wellington College advising 'Boy David' Cameron how to get his 'Big Society' to work.

"This we must read!" Arturo said. So I downloaded a pdf of the whole pamphlet so we could read it for ourselves!
(http://www.policyexchange.org.uk/publications/)

We also listened to an item about this topic on the 'Today' programme via theBBC iPlayer. Anthony Seldon was interviewed about the pamphlet which is entitled: 'The Politics of Optimism'.

On this programme he said:

" We have to learn to make do with less; to learn to be happier with less consumer goods, with less material affluence ..."

In the actual pamphlet on pages 8 - 9. Anthony Seldon wrote:

It is perfectly possible to be happy, indeed happier, with the current or even reduced levels of affluence. It merely requires an adjustment in thinking.

"An adjustment in thinking! Huh!" I exclaimed.

I wonder if the family whose bread winner has just been made redundant will be able to make that 'adjustment in thinking'?

Will the soldier, who returning home from the frontline only to be told he is no longer wanted, be able to make this 'adjustment in thinking'?

Will the homeless who sleep rough in doorways opposite Charing Cross Station even know how to make the required 'adjustment in thinking'?

One wonders what's going on in the head of this Master of Wellington College. Is he seriously suggesting that bankers drooling at the prospect of fat bonuses will be prepared to even countenance an 'adjustment in thinking'?

Anthony Seldon has written a rather academic pamphlet for the bourgeoisie and the cognoscenti to mull over whilst sipping their port and savouring the stilton. But for the unemployed, those made redundant, the homeless, the weak, the sick and the old, this pamphlet will be dismissed as a cruel irrelevance.

'Twas ever thus - those who 'have', telling those who 'have very little' to be 'happy with what little you have.'

Arturo went boss-eyed from reading the pdf on the small laptop screen. He looked at me and twitched his tail. "C'mon, pal, I've read enough of this twaddle - what's this bloke think he's doing? All this 'Politics of Optimism' smacks of telling Granny to suck eggs! Let's go and do something useful. We'll get the leftovers from the kitchen!"

So - that's what we did.

'Bye' from us both.