Never mind the David Davis by-election, I've got news that really will leave you dumbstruck. My fingers are trembling as I'm typing this, but here goes:
A journalist has used Margaret Thatcher's "there is no such thing as society" quote in context! Not just any journalist, but a Guardian journalist! And not just any Guardian journalist, but a Society Guardian journalist!
The lady in question is Alison Benjamin and this is what she had to say on the Joe Public blog:
"There is such a thing as society, it's just not the same thing as the state," Tory leader, David Cameron said today as he unveiled plans for charities to run more public services.
This may appear at first sight a U-turn on Margaret Thatcher's famous quote "there is no such thing as society." But if you look more closely at what the then Tory leader said back in 1987, have the Conservatives really changed their tune?
"There are individual men and women, and there are families," Thatcher told Woman's Own magazine. "And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It's our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour."
Fast forward more than 20 years later and Cameron says of the Conservative party in 2008: "We believe in bottom-up social responsibility."
Its proposals for the role of voluntary and community groups in society are in a document entitled "A stronger society: voluntary action in the 21st century", with the emphasis on volunteering in communities (by people who are basically looking after their neighbours) and establishing volunteer-led organisations (again for volunteers read people) in areas where they don't exist.
Any suspicion that the Tories' love-in with the third sector is based on the idea of providing public services on the cheap, appears to be dismissed by the proposal, much-welcomed by the sector, to put it on the same footing as private companies by allowing them to be able to make "substantial" surpluses from running public services.
In an age of distorted journalism, it is heartening to see at least one member of the national press taking the trouble to report the truth and not just a story.
