David Cameron has promoted the “Big Society” as an alternative to the “big state.” If we are to believe his "vision," independent groups, volunteers and cooperatives will take over many of the functions currently provided by government.

In and of itself, this doesn't sound like the worst idea in the world. Unfortunately, it is widely - and in all likelihood accurately -  viewed as a transparent propaganda campaign to hide the damage being done by massive public sector cuts.

The exercise is particularly galling given the fact that among the areas being cuts is funding to existing voluntary organisations actually doing the work Cameron claims to support. In Nottinghamshire, housing charity Framework is facing a reduction of as much as 70% of its budget.

When the "Big Society Network" tried to hold a series of public meetings to promote the initiative, they were taken aback by the angry response and only held one meeting before pulling the plug.

The government has made much of the network's supposed independence, insisting that it isn't a government led propaganda exercise. However, Freedom of Information requests by the Guardian revealed that five civil servants from the Communities and Local Government department have been seconded to the Big Society Network since June for varying lengths of time. Up to 24 September this had cost £24,000.

Locally, workers at Nottinghamshire County Council were surprised when on November 1st the “Corporate Director” of the Communities Department (which covers libraries, sport, country parks and highways) appeared to announce on the intranet that he was leaving with immediate effect.

That he was going was not a great surprise, the new council structure unveiled in September, essentially abolished the Communities department, stopping some of its services and splitting any remaining functions across the remaining four departments.

With one less “Corporate Director” in the new-look council it had always be assumed that Malynn (appointed to the £118,469 a year role in late-2008) would be leaving, but this was never stated explicitly and the go ahead for restructuring is supposed to wait until the completion of three-month’s statutory consultation.

The speed of Malynn’s departure and the announcement that “service directors will work to their new respective CLT member” (i.e. the head of their department in the new structure) confirmed, as many staff had suspected, that the decision to go ahead was a foregone conclusion and the consultation a sham.

The reason for the speed of Malynn’s exit emerged on November 4th when it was announced that he “will be working directly to [Chief Executive] Mick Burrows on a strategic project on Big Society and locality-based budgeting until his departure from the authority.”

Exactly what he is doing has been kept relatively quiet, but on November 22nd, a survey appeared on the intranet to get staff to talk about what they did to contribute to the Big Society. Apparently, they don't think the public is ready for this yet and have not posted anything on the council's website.

Far from being an alternative to the "big state," the Big Society looks like an extension of the state in new forms; a realignment of capitalism which seeks to drive up profit by getting us to work for nothing, overseen by state-appointed overseers. It should not be a great surprise that Tory libertarianism only goes so far. Anybody who thinks the Age of Austerity is going to free us from the impositions of the state is likely to be disappointed.