Know Your Enemy

"And in this boarded-up youth club, in Debbie's panic, in the image of Jane and her bump on the floor of the park, I realise I am peering into the reality of David Cameron's 'Big Society'. The council here told people that if they took away services like this, there would be volunteers; if the state withered away, people would start to provide the services for each other. But nobody opened their home to Jane, or volunteered to feed Debbie, or started a new youth club on their own time and with their own money. The state retreated and the service collapsed. It's a rebranding trick. The Conservatives know that shutting down public services sounds cruel, while calling for volunteerism sounds kind – but the effect is exactly the same. It's as if Marie Antoinette called in Max Clifford, and he told her to stop saying 'Let them eat cake' and start saying: 'Let them form a workers' co-operative to distribute cake on a voluntary basis'."

The Independent's Johann Hari visits Hammersmith and Fulham, the borough celebrated by David Cameron and chums as a model of compassionate Conservatism. The Tories'll do the Conservatism, it seems, and leave the compassion to those forced to pick up the pieces.

It's fair to say, though, that the retreat of the state creating a void that needs to be filled by volunteers or is left empty is a trend that's been developing under Labour too...