The Big Society...?

I assumed that these women, hard at work on a roadside in Derbyshire, were volunteers taking the place of redundant council workers. There's certainly much to be said for this kind of engagement with local amenities, and the community organisation that underpins it. It's a shame that it has to go hand in hand with the needless destruction of the local state. There must be a better way, that combines state and community provision within a broader democratic framework in which people can make positive choices to do things differently.