n life, it really all depends on who ‘we’ are. Margaret Thatcher used to talk about PLUs – ‘people like us’. The sub-text was that she had her circle and supporters – and most of the rest of us were more likely to be victims of the policies they imposed than benefi ciaries. Now, with more sophisticated spin, if not politics, David Cameron and his cabinet repeatedly tell us ‘we are all in it together’. This hasn’t carried any more
I
conviction than his cosyglow ‘big society’. But it all depends on who the ‘we’ are. This government has failed to convince the population that the super rich it increasingly advantages and the rest of us, from whom it increasingly ‘disinvests’, have much in common. Hardly surprising when more and more it separates us from each other, with its push to ever-accelerating inequality.
But it is also making ‘us’ increasingly
We are all being
threatened, overloaded and at risk of losing our livelihoods
conscious of our shared diffi culties. Middle- class families losing child benefi t and family tax credit realise that they have more in common with others pushed on to benefi ts than the well-heeled politicians and media proprietors who encourage them to hate each other. Similarly social workers, service users and carers are increasingly appreciating that they are coming under the same political attack. We are all being threatened,
overloaded and at risk of losing our livelihoods. Recognising our shared diffi culties and strengthening alliances is the next key step to take.
Peter Beresford OBE is chair of Shaping Our Lives and professor of social policy at Brunel University
Social workers offer their practice highlights of the month
Trudy Burns Learning disability social worker
While helping clients to fi nd
new social activities outside the usual day centre or respite model, I found a new touring club night run by individuals with a learning disability called Kiss My Disco. It is organised by the Stay Up Late campaign and the punk band Heavy Load.
Michael Isles Director, Thought Creative
Part of my work in managing a
specialist training and development organisation is talking to social workers about their practice. What I like is the continuing levels of commitment and enthusiasm for the job and the reasons for the job that colleagues clearly continue to have, despite the efforts of politicians and the media to sometimes undermine and point the fi nger at the profession!
Ben Martin adult care social worker
Driving through Pool in Cornwall
on my way home to Penzance, I see the familiar post-industrial silhouette of South Crofty mine. For so many years this has been an ‘edgeland’. Yet, with the newly opened Heartlands Project (www.heartlands cornwall.com) I see the shadow against a new light of change.