The central task I have set myself and this Party is to be as radical in social reform as Margaret Thatcher was in economic reform. That’s how we plan to repair our broken society.
These are the words of David Cameron in his 400,000 word, 1 hour and 20 minute long, speech at the Conservative party conference at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, Wednesday.
In a sober speech read from a prepared script, the leader of Britain’s second largest political party capitalised on the economic crisis to make his most serious attempt yet to sound like a government-in-waiting on social issues.
"Some say our society isn’t broken. I wonder what world they live in."
Central to Cameron’s message was that in order to fix Britain’s "broken society" he would be the second-coming of Margaret Thatcher.
In the 1980s the ‘Iron Lady’ broke the trade unions and sold off the inefficient goverment businesses that had kept the British economy in a head lock. She promoted individual responsibility in a free enterprise economy, which as a result soared upwards, like a kite. Her way became known to history as Thatcherism.
David Cameron said he aimed to do the same for society. He called the government’s culture of quangos and initiatives "spendaholic", and said the human rights act and health and safety industry strangled-out trust and social responsibility.
What journalists might call Cameronism (a word he didn’t use) would give trust back to the people, and promote social responsibiilty in a society based around the family.
The Conservatives who before Cameron’s speech saw their leader 10 points ahead of Labour in the opinion polls did not expect a big bounce in support after this speech due to the distractions of the economic crisis.
It was nethertheless seen as Cameron’s most significant one yet.
Bullets: Cameron’s plan to fix Britain’s broken society
- More prisons
- Solve the causes of crime: drugs, alcohol abuse, children without loving fathers
- Make goverment more efficient
- End the culture of human rights and health and safety that has backfired
- Put more trust and responsiblity in individuals and their common sense to decide between right and wrong
- Help British families become the building block of a good society
- Declade war against a poisonous school system that rewards bad behaviour
David Cameron: speech highlights
Cause of crime
Two million children are brought up in households where no one works. Or that there are housing estates in Britain where people have a lower life expectancy than in the Gaza Strip. Just consider the senseless, barbaric violence on our streets. Children killing children. Twenty-seven kids murdered on the streets of London this year. A gun crime every hour. A serious knife crime every half hour. A million victims from alcohol related-attacks.
But it’s not just the crime; not even the anti-social behaviour. It’s the angry, harsh culture of incivility that seems to be all around us. When in one generation we seem to have abandoned the habits of all human history that in a civilised society, adults have a proper role – a responsibility – to uphold rules and order in the public realm not just for their own children but for other people’s too.
Trust
It is why, when we look at what’s happening to our country, we can see that the problem is not the leader; it’s Labour. They end up treating people like children, with a total lack of trust in people’s common sense and decency. This attitude, this whole health and safety, human rights act culture, has infected every part of our life. If you’re a police officer you now cannot pursue an armed criminal without first filling out a risk assessment form. Teachers can’t put a plaster on a child’s grazed knee without calling a first aid officer. Even foreign exchanges for students?you can’t host a school exchange any more without parents going through an Enhanced Criminal Record Bureau Check.
No, when times are tough, it’s not a bigger state we need: it’s better, more efficient government. But even more than that we need a stronger society. That means trusting people. And sharing responsibility.
Fix the family
If we sincerely care about children’s futures, then all families, however organised, need our help and support. So I don’t have some idealised, rose-tinted view of the family. I know families can be imperfect. I get the modern world. But I think that in our modern world, in these times of stress and anxiety the family is the best welfare system there is.
I spent some time recently sitting with a benefit officer in a Job Centre plus. In came a young couple. She was pregnant. He was the dad. They were out of work and trying to get somewhere to live. The benefit officer didn’t really have much choice but to explain that they would be better off if she lived on her own. What on earth are we doing with a system like that? With the money we save by ending the something for nothing welfare culture we will say to that couple in that benefit office: Stay together, bring up your kid, build your family, we’re on your side and we will end that couple penalty.
War on schools
The election of a Conservative government will bring – and I mean this almost literally – a declaration of war against those parts of the educational establishment who still cling to the cruelty of the “all must win prizes” philosophy and the dangerous practice of dumbing down.
It’s the President of the Spelling Society. He said, and I quote, “people should be able to use whichever spelling they prefer.” He’s the President of the Spelling Society. Well, he’s wrong. And by the way, that’s spelt with a ‘W.’ They let a child get marks for writing “F off” as an answer in an exam. As Prime Minister I’d have my own two words for people like that, and yes, one of them does begin with an ‘F’. You’re fired.
David versus the Goliath state
Miliband said unless government is on your side you end up on your own. thought it was one of the most arrogant things I’ve heard a politician say. For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between. No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on. No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in. No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society – just them, and their laws, and their rules, and their arrogance. You cannot run our country like this.
Today the returns from endless big-state intervention are not just diminishing, they are disappearing.
Note: The full text of this speech was published at The Times
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