Writing about the Big Society (cringe-makingly awful name for an important and good modus operandi), Ben Brogan hits the nail on the head:

[T]he combined might of Labour’s useful idiots in the voluntary and
charitable sector...are neither volunteers nor charitable – they are
paid and their money comes not from individuals but the state. No
wonder they snap any time a hand reaches to turn off the tap.

The other crucial point here was raised yesterday by Nick Clegg in a seemingly unrelated interview in the Observer:

I need to say this – you shouldn’t trust any
government, actually including this one. You should not trust government – full
stop. The natural inclination of government is to hoard power and information;
to accrue power to itself in the name of the public
good.

Quite so.