CNJ COMMENT - Cameron visit leaves the ‘Big Society’ muddled as ever

Published: 17 February, 2011

DAVID Cameron must have thought that a quick visit on Monday to the People’s Supermarket was too good a chance to miss for his promotion of his Big Society idea.

It is his idea – and not his party’s – and that alone means he has to pull out all the stops to get it into the media.

But didn’t he make a mistake in trying to publicise the People’s Supermarket, set up last year, as an example of the Big Society at work?

All evidence points to the supermarket being a commercial enterprise, pure and simple. And, potentially, a very viable enterprise.

But the Big Society at work?

Whatever the Big Society is it presumably refers to community organisations, such as the scouts, the girl guides, the local football club – even, say, a type of Citizens Advice Bureau – but, surely, not commercial enterprises that by their nature can only exist by making a net profit, however small.

Any commercial enterprise that doesn’t make a net profit – at least enough to cover all calculated contingencies – will soon go out of business.

Voluntary-run bodies exist to help people in some form of another – not to make a profit.

From observations, it seems the People’s Supermarket may be a brave model for other retail outlets. 

Each member has to contribute £25 annually and, in return, has to work four hours a month. Membership entitles volunteers to discounted goods at the shop. 

Thus, in one smart move, most of the basic overheads for an enterprise – annual rent, salaries, insurance – can be largely met by volunteers. 

Apparently, the Bloomsbury supermarket has attracted 500 members whose contributions, possibly, would substantially meet basic overheads.

But the enterprise still needs to make a net profit in an industry which constantly faces the difficulty of fluctuating world prices beyond their control.

And it is all this which distinguishes it from a typical voluntary organisation.

But David Cameron would not be the polished politician he is if he hadn’t tried to snatch a bit of TV footage from a snap visit to the supermarket. Here, he succeeded judging by Monday’s newscasts.

The average viewer may well have thought the supermarket was a perfectly good example of the Big Society – and that for David Cameron would have been a result.

But was it purely good PR tactics that made him leave by the rear exit to avoid protesters annoyed with the possible closure of a day centre?

Or an inner feeling that the crisis facing local government caused primarily by his cuts is getting messier and messier.