There is no doubt that many in the voluntary and community sector are struggling to survive, to secure funding, and to honour their missions.

So George Osborne has lost his treasured AAA rating. We are now heading for record consecutive quarters of stop-start growth. Youth unemployment is at an all-time high. Neither the deficit nor the debt is coming down and there's no money to do anything about it. If we want to spend more we have to borrow more, and even Ed Balls can't be sure we'll end up better off if we do.

Will the government make something of the Big Society in time to win the elections?

Is it just me, or does it seem rather strange, not to say inappropriate, to regard the provision of public services as monopolies that need to be broken up? And is it not a logical next step from this idea is to regard government itself as a monopoly that needs to be broken-up?

For many families in that 15%, Child Benefit represents the last visible, tangible thing they receive from the state. If they do not send their children to state school, if they use private healthcare, if they pay for their lawyers, drive a car, own their property, and have never claimed welfare, then this may be the only state benefit they have ever received. And put in these terms, they may well feel entitled to it. Of course, it can be argued that they are privileged not to have to rely on state infrastructure not to have to sit on NHS waiting lists or suffer a post-code lottery education.

Charity leaders have told David Cameron his 'Big Society' idea is going nowhere, with many charities facing crippling spending cuts and reforms coming...

The National Council of Voluntary Organisations recently estimated government cuts to the sector at £3.3bn by 2015. On top of this, a recent report has revealed that giving fell by 20% between 2010/11 and 2011/12, a loss of almost £2.3 billion in real terms.

All of this is simply to highlight the power of the public and its cruelty. If the government is to create engagement between the police and the polis, it will need to engage in the first place - as failure to do so can lead to revolting results.

We need collaborators, and not castle builders.

There has perhaps never been a more important time for the voluntary and community sector since 1945 than today. It has a duty to show the necessary strategic vision, imagination, leadership, values, and above all, courage to stand up and make a difference.

The voluntary and community sector has always championed the rights and needs of the disadvantaged; fought for equality; and stood up for social justice. Now is the time to advocate these aims as never before. Cuts and many other government policies are taking the country in the opposite direction. Charities cannot ignore this.

The summer of Olympic and Paralympic sporting success will be etched on the memories of the public in the same way as the World Cup winning year of 19...

The Big Society is, he says, 'designed to conceal a deeply damaging withdrawal of the state from its responsibilities to the most vulnerable'. The vulnerable - a group that the great and the good ill-define the better to hide behind them. You get the Big Society you deserve I suppose.

Occasionally, among the static noise of 24-hour news, there comes a speech that matters. Yesterday's by David Cameron, on welfare reform, was one of them.

At a recent conference for chief officers from community and voluntary sector - the NAVCA Chief Officers' Residential Event (CORE), I posed a challenge to the sector and in particular with regard to the future role of support and development organisations at a local and national level. I raised this because of my commitment to the local voluntary and community sector and my passionate belief in the vital contribution that voluntary and community action makes to society.

The Department of Health guidance on fair access to care services is titled "prioritizing need in the context of putting people first".

You know, there's a good reason why the real social entrepreneurs are not taking Cameron on at his own game. It's because his much debated 'big society' is just not wicked enough. It's tame and won't solve the social problems in the UK, let alone Greece.