A 'quick poll' by the Directory of Social Change asked its newsletter readers what type of car they thought the Big Society would be, with surprising results.

Of the multiple choice poll’s 126 respondents, 43 per cent decided that it is not in fact a car at all, but a bicycle.

In second place in the poll with 24 per cent was a 1950s vintage Cuban car, while the classic Volkswagen bus received 17 per cent of the vote. Only 5 per cent ticked the option that it is like a Rolls Royce.

Why voters should have plumped for the bicycle comparison is unclear, though the Conservative Party has become to some degree associated with this mode of transport. The Prime Minister famously cycles to work on a regular basis, while ‘Boris bikes’ have become a common sight on London’s streets.

The DSC’s senior researcher Sarah Johnston, meanwhile, suggests it may be because the Big Society is cheap and environmentally friendly.

Either way, let’s hope David Cameron takes care to lock up the Big Society securely next time he pops into Tesco for some salad.

Slave ship

As part of the poll, which the DSC emphasises is designed to stimulate debate rather than constitute rigorous research, respondents were also given the chance to come up with their own suggestions for what kind of vehicle the Big Society is most akin to.

Nominations included a slave ship, a magic flying carpet, Del Boy’s three-wheeler, a pimp’s car and, poignantly, “a cardboard box left out in the rain with a crayon outline of a car on the side”.