Society daily 01.09.2010

Scissors — The coalition's cuts are beginning to bite.

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Today's top Society stories

Edinburgh council unveils £90m cuts plans

Citizens Advice warns public sector jobs cull will create new wave of debtors

Scope warns cuts will further marginalise disabled people

Norfolk hospital organises lessons in euphemisms for foreign nurses

Richard Williams: Young people need secure jobs, not casual and part-time work

Britain's unhealthy obsession with potato crisps

All today's SocietyGuardian stories

Other news

• The Charity Commission has warned that it will no longer be able to investigate all allegations of fraud if proposed 30% cuts to its budget go ahead, reports the Independent.

• A senior Catholic church figure has blamed abortion and gay rights for turning Britain into a "gay, hedonistic wasteland", reports the Independent.

• Tesco has been accused of "using its financial muscle and dirty tricks" to win approval for new stores ahead of new controls that would limit its expansion plans, reports the Daily Mail.

• Harrow council has set up Britain's first "Amazon-style" website allowing residents who receive care to "shop" for support and leisure services, paid for out of their personal care budgets, reports 24Dash.com

On my radar...

• A brilliant new blog, A Million Small Conversations, created by Hilary Burrage, with thought-provoking musings on language and social change, from "judgment extremism" to the meaning of "meaningful" dialogue:

"Huge changes often begin with a fleeting thought, a shift in how someone sees things, a passing remark, or simply serendipity. So A Million Small Conversations asks, what does it take to connect random small sparks of good ideas, to achieve positive and sustainable change?"

• Out from behind the Sunday Times' online paywall, Geoff Mulgan's reflections on "big society", including a timely reminder that the state is not inimical to a flourishing civil society...

• Emma-Jane Cross's thoughts, chief executive of Beatbullying, which lay into the infuriating world of adoption:

"The system is riddled with bigotry, sanctimony, structurally-flawed policy, antediluvian hypocrisy and a poverty of spirit and responsibility which is just breathtaking."

• Retooled, a topical web project that curates a series of video interviews to capture the trauma of redundancy and how to survive it, as experienced by former MG Rover employees...

• Birmingham city council chief executive Stephen Hughes's open letter to staff on the financial challenges facing his authority:

"Our best estimate at present is that the city council will need to reduce its net expenditure by £330m over the next three to four years: £230m from the council's core budget, and £100m from specific grants.
That is about a third of our net spend.
It is really difficult to convey how big a problem that is."

• The closure of Holbeck Foods, an award-winning Leeds social enterprise (reported by Guardian Leeds, with interesting comments from local bloggers Rob Greenland and Mike Chitty)...

Todays' SocietyGuardian supplement highlights

Erwin James speaks to Shaun Attwood about life in America's toughest jail

Interview: Noreen Oliver, advocate of an abstinence-based approach to rehab

How the Blitz created the welfare state

Clare Allan: The asylum experience never leaves you

All today's SocietyGuardian supplement stories

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.