PEOPLE always say you can see a man's thoughts in his eyes but in the House of Commons this week it was the Prime Minister's ears that gave the game away.

David Cameron had just stood up to give his first answer of the day at Prime Minister's Questions and was looking distinctly scarlet around his lobes.

The question from Leader of the Opposition Ed Miliband that brought on the discolouration was a pithy thing about the "Big Society".

If you were to ask a coalition party press officer what the Big Society is, they would probably tell you it is "communities doing it for themselves" i.e. charities, volunteers and social enterprises working to solve society's ills, instead of direct state action.

But if you were to ask me, I would tell you the Big Society is a huge lead, deadweight of a phrase that Cameron will one day regret ever coining.

The first problem with the Big Society is that there are only so many people out there willing to give up their precious time to run a school, to set up social enterprises or volunteer.

The second problem is that to help those that do want to take part, there still needs to be a sort of structure that can direct volunteers and guide charities to where their work is most needed – and that still needs some state funding.

It is exactly that network of voluntary groups and charities – the ones Cameron wanted us all to look to as an example of how to join the Big Society – that this week rebelled against the Tory leader.

Dame Elisabeth Hoodless, executive director of Britain's largest volunteering charity, this week warned that spending cuts were in danger of decimating the ranks of British volunteers.

Hoodless added that Cameron had overestimated the amount of responsibility volunteers were prepared to take on.

I also spoke to volunteer group workers from Notts who were in Westminster last week to meet Minister Nick Hurd over the issue – they wanted to work with Government, but said cuts seemed to be coming too fast.

The Government, they said, was cutting its own services, making more work for a volunteering sector that was also creaking under the pressure of reduced state funding.

And so it was not without poignancy that Miliband stood up for his first question this week and simply asked: "Can the Prime Minister tell us, how is his Big Society going?"

On a side note such a deadpan attack was greatly appreciated after last week's damp squib of a PMQs in which Miliband agreed with everything the PM said in a bid to appear statesmanlike.

It is an Opposition's job to oppose – some of you out there might find it petty to watch people opposing for opposition's sake, but if everyone simply agrees with the PM all the time, we are no better than a dictatorship.

Back to this week. Miliband's question took a second, but Cameron's answer was long, the kind of speech Michael Heseltine would have referred to as "global".

Cameron then seemed to get irked during the session, leading Miliband to stand up and tell him that anger would cloud his judgement.

"That's not the first Prime Minister I've said that to," added Miliband, comparing Cameron to Gordon Brown in the most surprising and neat line of the day.

The PM's answers by contrast continued to wander. There is nothing like a long rambling reply to signify that a politician knows he can't forcefully answer a question.

Cameron knew it on Wednesday and so did his ears.