Society daily: 13.09.10

Follow Society Guardian on Twitter Follow Patrick Butler on Twitter Sign up to Society Daily email briefing Today's top Society Guardian stories We want partnership with unions, Maude tells TUC Study reveals extent of teenagers' drinking problems Call for reform of "spent" criminal convictions Jackie Ashley: spending cuts and the decline of the north Julian Dobson: the kamikaze spirit in the coalition soul Martin Wainwright: Eric Pickles has spent too long in Essex All today's Society Guardian stories Other news • Officials at the anti-poverty Commonwealth Development Corporation are "living it up" at the taxpayer's expense, claims the Daily Mail • Private providers performed worse than JobCentre Plus in getting people on incapacity benefit back to work, according to a devastating public accounts committee report on Pathways to Work reported in the Financial Times On my radar... • Excellent "open letter" from Julian Dobson to Lord Nat Wei on why it is social justice - not good intentions - that will power Big society... "I'd urge you to engage with people's anger, because if you can't convince those who are already involved in community action that you and your government colleagues are listening seriously, then the Big Society idea, like so many before, will shrivel and die." • This post by blogger Tim Montgomerie of Conservative Home on why the Coalition must resist the "need to be loved" as it prepares to enter a period of cuts-related "extreme unpopularity" • An intriguing-looking account of Eric Pickles' irresistable political rise in Bradford in the 1980s, entitled the Pickles papers, published in 1989, and now online (thanks @TobyBlume ) • Artist David Shrigley's fantastic animated video making the case against cuts to public spending on the arts (thanks @MarkOneinFour ) • Very funny piece in the FT by Kate Kellaway on why the best Chief executive officers are just like toddlers (thanks @FlipchartFT ): Both groups tend to swagger round with a wide-legged gait. Both say "mine" a lot and are exceedingly bad at sharing. Both have short attention spans. Both lack common sense and have issues with listening. CEOs and toddlers are also hazy about the existence of other human beings, tending to view them as objects. They both inspire fear in the hearts of their handlers. And anyone who has observed how toddlers behave on aircraft will realise why it is a good idea for CEOs to travel in private jets. • David Robinson of Community Links on the limits - and potential - of Social Impact Bonds : "Ultimately the SIB is the turn key enabling government to shift money from running ambulances at the bottom of the cliff into building fences at the top, without either spending twice or abandoning the most desperate." • Social activist and blogger Waseem Zaffar on the implications of Big Society for the Lozells area of Birmingham as community funding dries up... (thanks @tonybovaird ) • Blogger Redundant Public Servant, who wonders if media caricatures of public sector workers will make it harder for him to get a job: "My concern is how this tide of negative publicity affects my ability – as a redundant public servant – to persuade any organisation outside of the public sector to think of me as something other than a lazy wastrel bloated on taxpayers' expense." • Paul Dale in the Birmingham Post on why the doom-mongers at Britian's biggest local authority may not be bluffing about the cuts • Flip Chart Fairy Tales, who argues Big society, and other social innovation projects, are merely "damage limitation" initiatives - not answers to 25% cuts in public spending Events Driving efficiencies in public sector ICT , 30 September, London: a one-day conference for senior IT professionals to re-examine the way they work, cut costs and deliver vital efficiency savings. Public sector online , 4 October, London: a one-day conference examining how public sector professionals can engage with their audience to deliver services more effectively and strategically online. Society Guardian blogs Joe Public Sarah Boseley's global health blog Guardian awards Guardian Public Services awards 2010 Guardian charity awards 2010 Society Daily blog Society Daily blog editor: Patrick Butler Email the editor: [email protected] Society Guardian Links SocietyGuardian.co.uk Public - the Guardian's website for senior public sector executives The Guardian's public and voluntary sector careers page Hundreds of public and voluntary sector jobs Society Guardian editor: Alison Benjamin Email the SocietyGuardian editor: [email protected]