Bishop of Orkney attacks idea of 'big society'

THE bishop of Orkney has hit out at David Cameron's "big society" as potentially "disastrous".

The Right Reverend Dr Robert Gillies, who is also bishop of Aberdeen, was highly critical of the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government's move to encourage people on invalidity benefit back into work.

He said: "For some, not least those suffering from various forms of mental illness, this will prove disastrous. Discreet or covert assessment tests are required to be carried out on people who may not know they are even being tested."

And he questioned the methodology behind testing someone's ability to work: "Do they assess a person's capacity to assume responsibility, sustain a full, or part-time day's work? I fear not.

"Do they take into account any variation of a person's emotions and how these might be affected in any given workplace? Do they look at how a drugs regime might be maintained in such places? It is unlikely."

He fears the "big society" fails to address these concerns and actually camouflaged health issues from public view. However, he added he hoped the initiative might bring religion back into mainstream society.

He said: "I hope it ends the secularising and marginalising of faith into a "private" thing you do in your own time."