CentreRight

Society's Guardian

However misguided its editorial lines, the Guardian remains the only national newspaper providing in-depth coverage of social affairs. In recent months the paper's public and charitable sector Society supplement has been embracing all things Tory with unexpected enthusiasm. This has included an interview of Harry Benson whose work in Bristol has been influencing party family policy and profiles of candidates Mike Freer, Andy Stranack and Philippa Stroud. All these articles are worth reading.

As well as anticipating a change of government, could this extensive coverage have anything to do with pre-empting a new Conservative adminstration's attempts to move the lucrative advertising of public sector jobs out of Society Guardian to a new website? Mooted by George Osborne some time ago, I don't know whether this is this now official party policy. But if swingeing cuts are to be avoided, at least initially, perhaps the Society section and the huge revenues it generates for the Guardian have a future after May 6th.

A curious strategy

Over five million people are out of work and on benefits. One in five young adults are unable to find a job. 5.7 million are in severe poverty. Child poverty is rising and one in six children is growing up in workless households.

So what is the latest strategy of DWP, the Government department primarily responsible, to sort out this mess? Issuing a call to tackle ageism in the media. Inspired. 

Social apartheid and social housing

Social housing has become a ghetto tenure which is helping perpetuate a growing social apartheid. That was the stark assessment of Iain Duncan Smith in his speech to the Chartered Institute of Housing's annual conference in Harrogate last week.

70% of new social rented households have no-one in work, and the rate of full-time employment among social tenants has fallen from two-thirds to one-third in just 25 years. IDS argued that increasing employment rates among tenants must be the top priority in tackling the poverty and dependency blighting social housing. However this could only be achieved with co-ordinated action to provide intensive welfare-to work programmes (with stronger obligations to access them), benefit reforms to make work pay (HB creates a huge disincentive to work) and reforms to social housing itself. As well as measures to break-up mono-tenure estates, IDS said that needs-based allocations and universal life-long security of tenure should be re-assessed.

Inside Housing, the weekly trade journal for social housing, gave the speech a cautious welcome, acknowledging that is likely to be the Conservatives who 'grasp the nettle' of tackling worklessness and dependency in the sector. The Centre for Social Justice's housing policy group, chaired by Kate Davies of Notting Hill Housing, will put forward its proposals in this area later this year.

Shame on British banks

Few British journalists have done more than Peter Oborne to highlight the plight of Zimbabwe. I commend his excellent article calling us to action in this week's Spectator.

Oborne describes how a German company, Giesecke & Devrient, is helping Mugabe through its printing of trillions of Zimbabwe dollars which is helping prop up the collapsing economy. If the EU were serious in opposing Mugabe it obviously would not tolerate this.

Giesecke & Devrient has 'key accounts' with British companies including RBS, Group4Securicor, the Post Office, HBOS and my bank, HSBC. Each of us should be using our power as consumers to apply pressure to corporations helping keep Mugabe in power. I'm calling HSBC to ask why they are doing business with Giesecke & Devrient.

5pm update: Ivor Godfrey-Davies, HSBC's Head of Group Corporate Relations, has just called. He promised to clarify what, if any, links his company has with G&D and get back to me next week. Having contacted all the firms listed above, I will post the responses I get next week.

Black fightback against violent crime

A new generation of socially-conservative black leaders must lead the fightback against London's growing epidemic of knife and gun crime. In an excellent comment piece in today's Standard, Lindsay Johns praises Shaun Bailey, Tory parliamentary candidate for Hammersmith and new deputy mayor Ray Lewis for rejecting the left-wing orthodoxies that have particularly damaged hard-pressed urban communities:

Both Lewis's and Bailey's conservative stance on the underlying causes of knife crime - the glaring lack of positive black male role models, the abrogation of parental responsibility and working-class over-reliance on the "benefits culture" - embodies views that, more than ever, we should heed...

...Working with young people in Peckham has convinced me that the liberal "softly, softly" approach achieves little, save disappointment and disillusionment, and actually engenders the opposite of respect.

Two halves of welfare reform

I have just returned from Chris Grayling's speech on welfare reform at the Centre for Policy Studies. The new detailed Conservative proposals he outlined on strengthening the work conditions of benefits and providing intensive compulsory back-to-work support for under 21s will greatly help in getting Britain's five million workless adults into jobs

However their potential to combat joblessness will only be fully realised if they are accompanied by reforms to the benefits system to ensure that getting a job always pays for welfare claimants. Many benefit recipients know that they will be no better off financially in work than at home on the dole. Providing complusory intensive back-to-work schemes and ensuring work pays for everyone are equally important in tackling the scourge of worklessness that disfigures so many communities.

The toughest job in fundraising

On the brink of imminent financial meltdown, Labour cannot expect to be overwhelmed with interest in the three 'high value' fundraiser positions they are currently advertising. Also still available is the position of General Secretary, 'one of the most challenging and exciting executive positions.'

Selling social responsibility

Few would argue that Britain's most severe social problems cannot be solved by government alone, whether it be life-controlling addictions, family breakdown or worklessness.

David Cameron has long championed 'social responsibility'. Each of us, individually and collectively, is rightly called on to do our bit for society. If citizens step up to the mark, it will be much easier to tackle poverty and devolve power from central government to local communities and families.

Agreed. But what if people don't want the hassle? Sobering new research by YouGov for NCVO indicates that 88% of people agree there is a social divide in the UK and two-thirds think it will get worse in the next five years. However only 23% would be prepared to get involved in their community to help the poorest and contribute to bridging that divide.

All is not lost - a further 34% were non-committal about whether they would get involved in their community, suggesting that they might be persuaded with the right support and encouragement. The civil society agenda Cameron has set out offers hope of reversing, or at least slowing, the trend towards a more atomised, individualistic and selfish nation. However these figures show the scale of the challenge in getting people to start taking more responsibity and care for each other.

The Grapes of Wrath

This afternoon sees the premiere of Only Connect's production of The Grapes of Wrath, starring former guests of Her Majesty at HMP Wormwood Scrubs and HMP Holloway.

The Times has done a feature on it today. Only Connect is a small charity helping rehabilitate prisoners and ex-offenders through the power of the arts. Danny Kruger, David Cameron's special adviser, chairs the charity and his wife Emma is directing this play of Steinbeck's classic novel.

The play is running throughout the week in a theatre near Russell Square, with evening performances Tuesday - Friday. Get your tickets here.

Being the change

Philip Davies is the latest MP to complete the Centre for Social Justice's Inner City Challenge after spending most of last week at St George's Crypt, a homelessness project in central Leeds. He follows colleagues including Justine Greening, Oliver Letwin and Ed Vaizey who have each given up four days to help and learn from a charity tackling acute poverty outside their constituency. Any MP interested in taking the Challenge should speak to Chris Bullivant at the CSJ.

China and Darfur

Alex - I completely agree that as Beijing prepares to host the Olympics, democratic nations must not shirk their duty to hold China to account for its appalling human rights record and refusal to apply effective pressure on the Sudanese government to end the genocide in Darfur.

In today's Times, Martin Samuel argues that the Government is worthy of a gold medal for its "pathetic refusal" to challenge China on human rights and Darfur. He reckons that worries of a boycott of the 2012 Olympics is behind this cowardice. I fear he's right.

Samuel also praises Team Darfur, an international coalition of athletes committed to highlighting the ongoing crisis. Let's hope more British athletes are prepared to resist pressure from the BOA and join their peers from around the world in taking a stand.

One final thought - at this time of Conservative Future elections, Darfur is surely a cause worthy of championing by our party's youth wing?

Three cheers for Annabel

Much praise is due to the redoubtable Annabel Godie, Leader of the Scottish Tories. In negotiations with the SNP over their budget passed yesterday, valuable concessions were extracted that will boost police numbers, reduce business rates and, most encouragingly for me, re-balance drug treatment towards abstinence based programmes aimed at recovery rather than maintenance.

Parents of addicts in Glasgow have told me of the despair they feel seeing their grown-up children parked on methadone for five or ten years. They live zombie like existences and are given little encouragement to get properly clean and re-integrate into mainstream society. Now, thanks to the efforts of Annabel, ably supported by Murdo Fraser and Bill Aitken, projects like the Maxie Richards Foundation and Bethany Christian Trust should get fair access to drug treatment budgets.

Scottish Conservatives' skilful engagement with the SNP has made them the second most influential party in the Scottish Parliament - no mean feat considering their recent electoral fortunes.

Let's champion high-speed rail

The Times today reports a call from Network Rail Chief Executive Iain Coucher for Britain to build a £50bn high-speed rail network by 2020. Capacity on most intercity routes is due to run out by 2015.

After the Rugby debacle, passenger groups understandably want Network Rail to concentrate on maintaining the current network rather than lobbying for the building of new lines.

However Coucher's call should be heeded. Britain's competitiveness cannot be safeguarded by expansion of road and air travel alone. Labour have kicked the issue into touch, refusing to decide on new lines until 2012. As I argued last year, that leaves the Conservatives with a great opportunity to champion the new transport infrastructure Britain so badly needs. Using new high-speed lines to help bridge the growing north-south divide is right on environmental and economic grounds, and could yield siginficant electoral dividends for our party.

Left looking right on poverty

I've just returned from a Fabian Society seminar: Social justice, conservatism and the state. Greg Clark, Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, was the main speaker, with Sunder Katwala of the Fabians and me responding. Following Iain Duncan Smith's recent speech to the Smith Institute, this is another example of the left's interest in the Conservative Party's developing social justice agenda.

Greg attracted an impressive audience including the chief executives of two of Britain's largest poverty-fighting charities. He reiterated many themes from his recent excellent pamphlet Who's Progressive Now (co-authored by Jeremy Hunt) which argues that "The Conservative Party is not just catching up in regard to a truly progressive approach to poverty, it is beginning to lead the way."

Supporters of the End Child Poverty campaign were disappointed not to be given any suggestion that the Conservatives would commit an additional £4 billion to meet the Government's target to halve child poverty by 2010 (there is little chance of this extra money from Gordon Brown, either). The left's over-reliance on financial transfers in alleviating poverty is always going to divide them from most on the centre-right. However there may be scope for fruitful dialogue between left and right in areas such as the most effective interventions for vulnerable infants during the crucial first three years, and several aspects of welfare reform.