Nick Clegg a victim of the unexpected outcome of the UK elections made a statement when he announced his resignation as leader of the Liberal Democrats that defines what to expect of the next five years ‘I hope that our leaders across the United Kingdom realise the disastrous consequences for our way of life and the integrity of the United Kingdom if they continue to appeal to grievance rather than generosity, and fear rather than hope’.

Sixty-three percent of the voting population did not vote for the Conservatives (there is no proportional voting in the UK as there is in Australia) but the 36% that did have endorsed another five years of grievance and fear. Another five years of a particular form of capitalism that understands economic ‘growth’ is achieved when taxes are cut for those who are the better off in the belief that this will lead to more money and jobs, ensuring government does not interfere with the free market (unless the banks make a mess of it all again and need the government to bail them out) while at the same time balancing the books by reducing ‘welfare’ to the most vulnerable people in British society. Throw in a dose of ‘nobody tells us what to do’ and a vote in 2017 will determine if the UK stays in the EU? That inward looking boundary parochialism itself is enough to know grievance and fear will be the hallmarks of the next five years. And don’t forget the rhetoric of David Cameron who has captured the aspirational middle class vote with ‘those who work hard and do what is right will prosper’.

If you think this approach to running a country does not have the potential for a serious mess then remember dear old George Bush whose neoliberalism created more and more for the rich, less and less for the poor and eventually did all it could to assist with the GFC (read Joseph Stiglitz, The Great Divide if you are not sure this is for real).

And then there is Tony Blair lamenting the terrible lurch (although we didn’t see it) to the left by the Labor Party, apparently shunning business and focusing on the poor. Blair argues the Labour Party needs ambition and compassion – unfortunately ambition always seems to out balance compassion – especially at austerity time. Curioser and curioser is the announcement by David Cameron that in the next five years the Conservatives will stand for compassion and ambition for the working people – as one editorial puts it ‘parking tanks on Labour’s front lawn’.

So where does this leave the ‘social’ sector here in the UK?

Already there are many individual and peak charities calling for the sector to shape its own future in defiance to the Conservative austerity that will generate more and more poverty and widen the gap between the wealthy and the aspirational, as well as the poor.

Curiously quiet are the social enterprise advocates. They rejoice that all the political parties in the UK including UKIP endorsed ‘social enterprise’ and have announced two free drinks for anyone who can turn up at the appointed London venue next Tuesday!

So here is our guess at what will happen.

There will be those social enterprise advocates – thankfully the minority – who knowingly will continue to co-opt ‘businesses trading for a social purpose’ to roll out the Conservative neoliberal agenda. Mostly located in the intermediaries happily taking big society’s money, they work to reduce government provision of public services – privatisation by stealth.

Then there will be those happy social entrepreneurial enterprise advocates who love the hype and the idea and who never really spend any time critically reflecting on anything much except their new app that will somehow become a social business (what business isn’t ‘social’ one could argue – not many anti-social businesses survive). Unfortunately there may be more non-reflective entrepreneurial types than is healthy for the future of ‘businesses trading for a social purpose’.

And then there are those social enterprise advocates and practitioners that are already deeply committed to justice and equity who will keep working at the coalface of human need generating opportunities for those who suffer the most from a Conservative victory. These practitioners are already aware of the politics of grievance and fear. They see it in the faces of those they work with. They have and will continue to shape their future and the futures of others in defiance to the neoliberal austerity that cements the divide between people with money and those without the opportunity to make enough to live with dignity – including those who work hard and do the right thing.

We agree with the call to shape our own destiny, and not unwittingly have it shaped for us by neoliberal ideologies. We agree that the politics of grievance and fear must be replaced by generosity and hope. We believe the social sector should refocus its energy not on quaint notions of doing ‘good’ but systems change with the intention and effect of justice, empowerment, and equality.