WE live in dangerous times here in Bucks, and I believe our whole way of life currently hangs by a thread.

I’m revisiting the theme of David Cameron’s Big Society. I believe it is a noble concept, but it’s at odds with what is happening to normal citizens.

The standard of living is currently plummeting. Most people don’t have spare cash due to huge increases in the price of fuel and VAT. Everything is more expensive, apart from interest rates, which is good for those with mortgages, but rubbish for savers.

So there is no incentive to save for the few who do have any money. But most folk I speak to don’t have cash, and no longer have big pension schemes to fall back on in their retirement.

So where does this leave us today as the county council votes to close the majority of our day centres and centralise these services? The common theme among current local government cutbacks is that volunteers will be drafted in to plug the gaps in social care, library and community services.

It’s a grand idea which I applaud and which will work for now.

But one day, maybe in the next generation, there won’t be so many affluent retired people to lend a hand.

There won’t be people with savings, pensions and assets to pay for their own social care. More and more of you will become totally reliant on state care but this will have been stripped bare.

It’s a social timebomb. We reap what we sow, and tomorrow’s generation will surely reap the whirlwind of today’s cost-cutting drives.