David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’: What a tasteless joke.

This was his big idea, when he forced himself on us in 2010: His Coalition government was going to thin out the public sector, sure, but don’t worry! The private sector would leap in, to fill the gap, and charities would be a major part of this.

Four years later we get this, from Pride’s Purge: Man dies after homeless[ness] charity makes him homeless

“Anthony Miller’s dead body was found two days ago washed up on a beach in Newquay.

“Just a few weeks ago he had lost his job as a roofer as a direct result of being evicted by homeless charity Chapter 1.

“He had even offered to pay higher rent but the so-called Christian organisation ignored his offers and turfed him out onto the street:

“Christian homeless charity says it has every right to make young Newquay man homeless.”

So much for charities stepping into the breach. What about the public sector, then?

As luck would have it, within hours of the Tom Pride article’s appearance, the above image flashed onto Facebook, along with the following message:

“SIGN OUR PETITION AND DEMAND CHANGE: www.crisis.org.uk/nooneturnedaway-fbook

“Simon isn’t the only one to be turned away when he asked for help. Our team of undercover researchers tested council homelessness services across England. In 50 out of 87 visits, they were turned away with little or no help.

“This is nothing short of a scandal. Homelessness is devastating and shouldn’t happen to anyone. The average age of death for a homeless person is just 47.

“Sign our petition to demand politicians review the help single homeless people get under the law in England. Because no one should be turned away when they ask for help.

“www.crisis.org.uk/nooneturnedaway-fbook #NoOneTurnedAway”

The first thing to do with this is realise and accept that publicly-funded local authorities are also turfing people onto the streets. Second is to accept that this is another charity, so they can’t all be bad. Third is to accept what this charity is saying – that it cannot cope with the numbers of people being made homeless by local authorities and other charities, and that this means something is badly wrong with the way the law says the State should deal with the problem.

Laws are enacted by the government. David Cameron leads the current government. We know that his changes have created the current situation.

It has to end, before any other bodies wash up on our beaches. So we come to the fourth thing, which is to ask yourself:

What are you going to do?