ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

Tories promise to tackle root causes of homelessness with new Foundation

Speaking yesterday at the launch of the Conservative Party's new Homelessness Foundation, at the Crisis charity, David Cameron said: "Homelessness isn't just about literally having no roof over your head.  We're also ignoring what's called the 'hidden homeless'.  That's the people who move from one sofa to another, night after night, with no stability and no security.  And it's the families who are forced to live in crowded conditions in hostels and B&Bs while they wait to be re-housed."  David Cameron's full remarks are here.

The Foundation will look at how public policy might be reshaped to tackle homelessness in all of its forms.  There will be a particular emphasis on the root causes of homelessness.  Grant Shapps, Tory housing spokesman, told ConservativeHome that he had invited all of the leading charities to join the Foundation and all had accepted.  John Bird of The Big Issue (to which Iain Duncan Smith has become a contributor) will be one of the advisors.  Also involved are Thames Reach Bondway, Homeless Link,  Shelter, Crisis (which has Tory origins), the Simon Community and St Mungo's.  It really is a sign of the times that these charities are willing to sign up to a Conservative research organisation.

The Foundation's Advisory Board looks vulnerable to being captured by the big, established charities in our view but Grant insists that smaller groups, following different approaches, like Aquila Way in Gateshead, will also be involved.

Cameron points to importance of low council tax in last week's victories

The Spectator's Political Editor Fraser Nelson has interviewed the Tory leader for this week's edition.  Here are some of the things we learn from the interview (that isn't yet online):

"[David Cameron] has two mobile telephones, one for speaking and one for reading emails. One phone has the ring tone taken from 24 — the hit television show about a counter-terrorist agent who regularly escapes mortal peril. ‘It’s an in-joke,’ the Tory leader says."

"‘Asking people to change their government is a big decision, and that is why there is not an ounce of complacency from me after the local results,’ he says. ‘There’s an enormous amount of reassurance we have to give people — that we have the right leader, a strong team, that we will take no risks with the economy and that we have a clearly worked-out plan for public services.’" Interesting that the emphasis is all on reassuring, rather than energising voters.

"‘If you take the local elections, there was no doubt in my mind that it was easiest to campaign in those places where Conservative councils really did have a record of keeping the council tax down, or at least promising to limit the increase,’ he says. ‘I haven’t done the sums. But I’m pretty sure that the areas where we did best were those where we were able to say: look, we’re in government here, we are helping with the cost of living, we understand your problems and difficulties.’"  Encouraging.

Cameron: I will never sanction a Budget that singles out the working poor for a tax rise

There were no big news headlines from David Cameron's interview on Andrew Marr this morning but here were the party leader's key messages:

• People on low incomes no longer feel that Labour is on their side.  The Conservatives say to those people that we'll keep your taxes down, we'll reform the benefits system so that couples aren't penalised for staying together and we'll give you a choice of a better school.  Cameron promised to never sanction a Budget that singles out the working poor for a tax rise.
• Conservatives have taken tough decisions.  There'll be no up front, unfunded tax cuts.  Francis Maude is looking for ways of cutting waste.  We'll cut the cost of politics and stop various perks that MPs enjoy.
• We won't talk down the economy, we won't predict recession.  There are many good fundamentals underlying the economy but over the course of an economic cycle we'll bring fiscal policy under control.
• Britain urgently needs to understand if it has enough storage or a robust enough infrastructure to ensure our supplies of oil, electricity, gas and water supply.  There must be a danger that the problems we've seen associated with industrial action in Grangemouth would be much worse if a terrorist group targeted our infrastructure.

Interviewed after David Cameron was Foreign Secretary David Miliband.  It was a very strong performance.  Mr Miliband appeared fresh and engaging - such a contrast with the PM's endless talk of long-term challenges.  If Brown's problems mount the Labour Party will be sorely tempted to choose Mr Miliband as the leader to save their seats.

10.20am: One of the best features of PoliticsHome is its through-the-day records of interviews that politicians give on radio and TV.  For highlights of Cameron and Miliband go to PoliticsHome. 

William Hague: Religious faith is needed to help tackle today's greatest injustices

Earlier today we highlighted a wide-ranging lecture by Iain Duncan Smith about the Conservative Party's poverty-fighting mission.   Also speaking last night - on this side of the Atlantic - was William Hague.  He was giving one of the lectures in Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor's Faith and Life in Britain series.  Watch the full forty minute lecture here.

The Shadow Foreign Secretary spent much of his time talking about the religious faith that motivated William Wilberforce and inspired the Clapham Sect's battle against slavery.  He noted Wilberforce's belief that “religion is the business of every one, but that its advancement or decline in any country is so intimately connected with the temporal interests of society, as to render it the peculiar concern of a political man…”.  Mr Hague listed the legacy of the Clapham Sect, which Wilberforce was a part of:

"The Clapham community was a place of fellowship, inclusiveness, and understanding, and represented a set of values in polar opposition to the prevailing social ills of the day. Wherever there was a need or an injustice, they applied their considerable resources to the problem. From cancer clinics to prisons, Sunday schools to orphanages, asylums for disabled children to education initiatives in Africa, virtually no cause was left untouched by their efforts. They founded the Society for Religious Instructions to the Negroes in the West Indies, the London Missionary Society, the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, the Church Missionary Society, the Religious Tract Society, the Society for Promoting the Religious Instruction of Youth, the Society for the Relief of the Industrious Poor, the British National Endeavour for the Orphans of Soldiers and Sailors, The Asylum House of Refuge for the Reception of Orphaned Girls the Settlements of whose Parents Cannot be Found, the Institution for the Protection of Young Girls, the Society for the Suppression of Vice, the Sunday School Union, the Society for Superceding the Necessity for Climbing Boys in Cleansing Chimneys, the British and Foreign Bible Society and the wonderfully named, Friendly Female Society, for the Relief of Poor, Infirm, Aged Widows, and Single Women of Good Character, Who Have Seen Better Days."

Although William Hague noted that interpretations of religion brought many problems he was of the overall view that it was needed by society today - not least in fighting human trafficking.

IDS: Voters must see conservatism as good for them and good for their neighbour

Speaking yesterday evening to centre right think tanks and campaigning organisations in Atlanta, Georgia, Iain Duncan Smith has talked about the importance of a conservatism that addresses poverty and social exclusion.  Here are some of his key messages:

Voters want to see a conservatism that is good for them and good for their neighbours: "Because we valued wealth creation, we were seen as indifferent to the poor.  Because we valued stable families, we were seen as hostile to lone parents.  Because we valued independence from the state, we were seen as hostile to the old, sick and disabled who relied on the state to survive.  So whereas many – if not most – voters thought that Conservative policies might be good for them, not enough thought that they would benefit their neighbours."

Fighting poverty can't just be about money: "We have let the left make alleviating poverty just about money. Whilst money is important, it is far from the only factor. I think of the drug addict with a family. If the state gives that person more money and by so doing gets them above the poverty line they and their family will still be in poverty... for unless they reform the way they live their lives and come off drugs, all the money goes on drugs and the family will struggle to find food and clothes.  They nature of your life has a huge bearing on your condition. That is why I have defined the five pathways to poverty as: Family Breakdown, Drug and Alcohol addiction, failed education, debt and the fifth, worklessness and dependency. All of these areas interact. For example we know from the evidence that the children of a broken home are 75% more likely to fail at school, 70% more likely to become drug addicted, 50% more likely to become alcoholics, 40% more likely to be in debt and 35% more likely to become unemployed. But new also know from the report that debt is the biggest cause of family break up."

Six must-adopt ideas to tackle social injustice

Gordon Brown's 10p U-turn is unravelling.  Over at CentreRight, Simon Chapman has the latest.

It's clear that the Government handled the 10p row very badly.  Through his tax on lower income Britons, Gordon Brown - as David Gauke MP has written - trashed his reputation as a champion of the poor and as a master strategist.

The Conservatives can only be pleased with current events but they have fallen short in one crucial respect.  The 10p row was an opportunity to present the party as a champion of hard working, lower income workers.  Lord Forsyth - followed by today's Sun and Telegraph - urged the party to focus on raising the threshold for paying income tax.  A reluctance to do so has meant the party has missed an opportunity to do the right thing and add a key group of voters to the conservative coalition.  By 63% to 28% the insiders that make up PoliticsHome.com's daily index do not believe that the Conservatives have emerged from the 10p tax row with a stronger connection with lower income voters.  That's a pity.

As the Conservative Party looks ahead it can do no better than to pick up more of the ideas from Iain Duncan Smith's Centre for Social Justice.  The CSJ has been monitoring the party leaders' pick up of its ideas.  Gordon Brown has adopted 16 ideas so far.  David Cameron has adopted 27.

As part of our Agenda 2008, here are seven yet-to-be-picked-up ideas that we think are most worthy of being adopted:

A national programme of relationship education.  The SJPG’s proposals did not promote marriage at the expense of single parents but included many measures intended to support people in all types of families, for example by better integrating them into the communities of which they are a part.  Relationship education has proven to reduce divorce and break-ups among couples. To help couples fulfil their aspiration to have healthy relationships that go the distance, the SJPG proposed the roll out relationship education across the nation recommending a national relationship and parenting education ‘invitation’ scheme for couples and parents at key life stages.

Pilot localisation of welfare to work provision to local consortia. Chris Grayling’s green paper in January showed that the party has accepted most of the SJPG’s welfare-to-work proposals.  However they have not adopted the proposal to facilitate innovation in the welfare system by piloting the devolution of decision-making, funding and contracting of welfare-to-work services to local employment consortia.

Are the Conservatives planning a £700m rescue package for the 10p tax victims?

It's notable that George Osborne on BBC1's Andrew Marr programme and David Cameron on Radio 4's World at One both mentioned that it would cost £700m to combat the worst effects of Labour's abolition of the 10p tax band.  Up until now the Conservatives have avoided getting into any debate about what they would do to help the low income families clobbered by Gordon Brown's 2007 Budget changes.

Before today the Tory leadership has simply concentrated on attacking Labour.  George Osborne (on Marr) accused Labour of losing its moral compass and David Cameron (on TWTW) talked of a "premeditated attack" on low income Britons.  The attacks are now being complemented by mention of this £700m figure, however.  With Parliament returning this week and discussions underway about how the Conservatives might work with rebels like Frank Field to force the Government to review policy, we may be on the verge of a Tory plan to do something positive for some of the poorest members of society.  Now that really would be something to celebrate...

Will McCain learn from Cameron's social justice agenda?

Former chief speechwriter to Bush, Michael Gerson, certainly hopes so. Gerson was the man behind the compassionate conservatism agenda that dominated the early years of Bush's presidency, and later on initiatives like the massive AIDS programme in Africa (some African countries now have a more positive view of America than Americans do!).

He's been in London this week as a guest of ConservativeHome and the Centre for Social Justice.  He was given a crash course in the current state of conservatism in the UK - meeting David Cameron, George Osborne, William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith, Michael Gove, speechwriter Danny Kruger and numerous others along the way - and articulated his beliefs at a dinner for thirty or so top thinkers and politicians. He has written up his observations in his bi-weekly column for the influential Washington Post (copied below).

He's a little worried about the Conservative Party's evident focus on reassurance and "taking issues off the table", particularly on foreign policy. He's shocked by how far we're letting the HFE bill push ethical boundaries. But he sees something special in the policy work that Iain Duncan-Smith and the Centre for Social Justice have been doing, and the emphasis it has been given by Cameron.

The main problem with the compassionate conservative agenda in America was that the policy work had mostly been done with the resources of a single senator's office, and that other than Gerson and the President there weren't many people in the White House or the GOP who really understood or supported it. In contrast, the CSJ have produced thick tomes of research on the social problems of the day and has had almost twenty MPs embedded (without their Blackberrys) in poverty-fighting projects to see these issues being tackled at the coalface.

Gerson has recently written up his insiders account of working at the White House in a book called Heroic Conservatism. The book offers a compelling vision of an idealistic, not merely anti-government, conservatism that uses the machinery of limited government in a bold and principled way to catalyse the improvement of lives. Cameron is reading it, Osborne will read it, and you really should read it.

This is the agenda that Ben Rogers was talking about on CentreRight the other day as "interventionist conservatism". If McCain can learn from the Tories on the domestic front, they can learn one or two things from him on the international front. It blends taking an active interest in helping the most vulnerable at home through innovative and relational programmes with a willingess to help those who can't help themselves elsewhere - whether they're suffering from terrorism and dictatorship or from a lack of widely-available medicines. It's thoroughly compassionate and thoroughly conservative.

Putting human rights at the heart of foreign policy

The next theme in our Agenda 2008 is for the Conservative Party to take the lead on international human rights policy. David Cameron, in his first speech devoted to the subject, could build on the progress William Hague has made in emphasising the importance of human rights to foreign policy by setting out a commitment to properly integrating human rights advocacy into the machinery of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office - which is due to release its annual human rights report this afternoon - and the United Nations.

The Party's Human Rights Commission has done much of the thinking for them. You can download its most recent annual report here or view our summary of its recommendations here. This agenda is simply translating the principles in David Cameron's speeches on social responsibility, into foreign policy.

The phrase "human rights" needs to be reclaimed from those on the Right who see them as always contradicting responsibilities and common sense, and those on the Left who blur natural rights with socio-economic expectations and lack a sense of proportion when it comes to the West's own transgressions. There's a need for a hard-headed back-to-basics championing of the basic freedoms, speaking out against torture, imprisonment for political or religious beliefs, state-sanctioned rape*, forced labour, conscription of child soldiers, restrictions on religious freedom, ethnic cleansing and genocide.

Brown's government has downgraded the issue - Ian McCartney had a genuine concern for human rights but his remit was simply too big and included the competing interest of trade. His successor, Mark Malloch-Brown doesn't even have the human rights remit mentioned in his title, as it is just one of his many large and competing responsibilites.

Tories propose higher taxation of binge drinkers' favourites and reduced taxation of lower strength drinks

Ahead of next week's Budget George Osborne has unveiled his own plans to raise the price of alcoholic drinks that, he believes, are fuelling the problem of binge drinking while protecting the 'guy in the pub enjoying a pint'.

The Conservatives will raise tax on super-strength beer, cider and alcopops but revenue raised will be used to reduce tax on low-strength beer and cider.  There will be no overall increase in the tax receipts from alcohol duties.

George Osborne on his proposal to treble duty on alcopops:

"These drinks are targeted primarily at young women. They disguise the taste of alcohol by putting very sweet mixtures in so they taste like lemonade.  Let's make the price of that very difficult for people and then use all the money to cut the taxes on the low alcohol products.  They've done this kind of thing in Germany and Australia and it has had dramatic effects."

According to the BBC a £2 can of super-strength beer would rise in price to £2.38, while a £1.25 litre of strong cider would rise to £1.66.

We would not object to a small increase in the overall taxation of alcohol if it was used to fund the kind of alcohol and drug treatment programmes favoured by the Centre for Social Justice.  Most Conservative Party members object to such higher taxation but may be happy to accept this shifting of the distribution of alcohol duties.

Related link:Westminster Council works with supermarkets to tackle street drinking

3.30pm: PDF of Tory press statement on announcement

A rehabilitation revolution

Further to our earlier report on the new Tory prisons policy and its emphasis on providing more prison places a much bigger theme of prisoner rehabilitation emerged from today's launch conference with David Cameron and Nick Herbert:

The most tabloid-friendly announcement from this morning's policy paper - Prisons With A Purpose - was the proposal that those offenders on community service should wear "high visibility overalls" when cleaning up graffiti or undertaking other work in public view.  Mr Cameron said that this would reassure the public that community sentences were real.  ITV's Libby Wiener wondered if the prisoners would look like Guantanamo inmates.  Mr Cameron said that they would not but that there was nothing wrong with offenders being marked out.

Less newsworthy but more important is a Tory commitment to double expenditure on rehabilitation to £259m or £2,500 for every discharged prisoner with the aim of reducing reoffending by 20%.   The reduction in reoffending, Mr Herbert hoped, would pay for the extra rebab.  Key to making the rehabilitation work will be a revolution in incentives.  Prison governors will be paid - not just for 'warehousing' prisoners but will be paid a premium if released prisoners haven't reoffended two years later.  The Tory Justice team hope that this will encourage the prison authorities to invest seriously in rehab and invite the best voluntary providers into their institutions.

The deportation of foreign prisoners coupled with the provision of extra prison places - to combat overcrowding - would provide the prison service with the extra room that it needs for proper rehabilitation.

Two new terms are set to join the political lexicon.  Judges will have to issue MinMax sentences - specifying the minimum period an offender must stay in prison and a maximum sentence.  The better behaved an offender the shorter the sentence but it will never be less than the minimum.  If the prisoner works hard and undertakes rehab they will be entitled to Earned Release.

Tories dispute that the wrong people are in prison but are persuaded by many of the recommendations of the Corston Report on women prisoners and the ongoing Bradley Review for those with mental health problems and that these categories of prisoners may need more specialist attention.

At least 60% of the earnings made by prisoners will go to a new Victims' Fund.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: The Prisons With A Purpose document is a huge encouragement to all of us who hope for a thoughtful and radical Conservative government.  The paper offers a comprehensive approach to reducing the huge problem of reoffending by revolutionising the incentive structures facing prisoners and the prison authorities.  Half of all crime is currently committed by previous offenders.  This paper is a serious attempt to increase public safety by both ending Labour's early releases and increasing rehabilitation.  As previously noted, Nick Herbert and Michael Gove are star performers in the shadow cabinet team.  David Cameron was astute to promote them both so quickly.

Prospect of former spy as Chairman of Scottish Tories ends good week for Annabel Goldie

The Daily Telegraph is reporting that David Cameron and Annabel Goldie are considering a former top MI6 man, Andrew Fulton, as the new Chairman of the Scottish Conservatives.  This is what the article tells us about him:

1. Last posting was head of station in Washington.  He also served in East Berlin, Rome and Saigon.
2. He is now a visiting law professor at Glasgow University.
3. He is an advisor to Armor, a private security intelligence firm, that also employs Sir Malcolm Rifkind.
4. "More George Smiley than James Bond" according to The Telegraph.

The news come at the end of a notable week for Scotland's Conservatives.  Earlier this week the Scottish Tories won £114m of concessions from the SNP in return for supporting their budget.  Cameron Watt of the Centre for Social Justice was particiularly pleased that one consequence of this budget deal will be a re-balancing of drug treatment towards abstinence based programmes aimed at recovery rather than maintenance.

Iain Duncan Smith's report on the social problems of Glasgow also won widespread attention and produced considerable soul-searching within a Scottish welfare establishment that has persisted with welfare policies that have failed to reduce dependency

The Economist pays tribute to the Scottish Tories in this week's edition:

"The Tories' reappearance on stage after ten years in the wilderness is a sign of big shifts in Scottish politics. The once-dominant Labour Party is out of power. Its leader in the Scottish Parliament, Wendy Alexander, is mired in two investigations into party donations and unable to oppose the SNP effectively... Of the three main opposition parties, the Tories played the cleverest game. “I argued two years ago, to much derision, that we could achieve far more of our policies with a minority than a coalition government without compromising our principles,” says Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Tory leader.  Indeed, she reckons she has forced the SNP's hand on a number of important issues—money for another 500 policemen, restoring the original SNP pledge, cuts in local taxes for 150,000 small businesses to be made by 2009 rather than 2010 and a new strategy to combat drug addiction by concentrating on abstinence and recovery rather than on replacement therapies such as methadone."

Good causes would gain nearly £200m every year from Tory changes to National Lottery

As reported in today's Daily Mail, the Conservatives wish to reform the National Lottery so that it returns to its original purpose of only funding good, voluntary causes.  During the Labour years £3.8bn has been taken away from good causes to fund politicians' pet projects.

David Cameron and Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt will promise a National Lottery Independence Bill that will end political inteference in the Lottery.  Three measures should ensure that nearly £200m extra every year will find its way to good causes:

• An end to funding politically-determined projects.  £100m is currently denied to good causes every year.
• 15% of lottery good cause money is currently assumed by the administration costs of the distributors. A new cap on these costs would release up to £36m for good causes.
• New tax treatments would produce another £40m or so for good causes without affecting Treasury revenues.

David Cameron to unveil latest report from David Willetts' childhood inquiry

David Cameron will unveil a report today that will outline new ideas for improving the lives of children.  It will include - as noted briefly yesterday - a suggestion of maternity nurses for new parents.  The nurses will be available for the first few days of parenthood at six hours each day.  They will help give advice to new parents, including on such basic matters as breast-feeding and bathing.

The Camerons are known to have benefited from such nursing support themselves and the Conservative leader is keen to examine whether a model of nursing used in Holland - called 'kraamzorg' - can be imported into Britain.  The Telegraph estimates that the scheme would cost at least £180m per year.

The children's manifesto is partly a response to last year's UNICEF report which put Britain at the bottom of a list of 21 nations in terms of child well-being.  The recommendations stem from an inquiry into childhood that is being chaired by David Willetts.

The children's report - 'More Ball Games' - will, reports the Daily Mail, also highlight "Tory pledges to extend flexible working to all parents, abolish the so-called couple-penalty in the benefit system, scrap health-and-safety red tape to make school trips easier, and introduce more "parkies" to patrol parks and playgrounds."

Mr Willetts is a particular champion of recruiting a small army of park rangers to provide a safe place for children to play.  He told The Guardian:

"If playgrounds are places where gangs gather, or are strewn with syringes and broken glass, it is not surprising that parents do not feel confident about letting their children out to play.  The very places where children should be able to play freely, public playgrounds, are where 40% of gangs meet."

Speaking to ConservativeHome earlier Mr Willetts said that a desire to recapture public space for children was at the heart of his thinking.  Many parents were afraid that public spaces weren't safe for their children.  This often led poorer families to keep their children at home - entertained by the television and computer games - with wealthier families transporting their children to very supervised forms of 'flat play'.  This had to change, he said, with equitable access to safe, public space.  David Willetts has just joined the CentreRight.com team and will be writing his first post on this subject later.

Related link on today's Platform: David Abbott asks 'Could national service mend our broken society?'

11am: PDF of David Cameron's speech_on_childhood.

We'll make British poverty history, say Cameron and Grayling

We won't say much more about the Tory welfare reform package as here on incapacity benefit and here on the Jobseekers' Allowance we have already said quite a bit but a few headlines from this morning's Brixton press conference...

David Cameron said that welfare reform was not complicated.  It was essentially about the idea that people who could work, should work and  that those who couldn't deserve society's full support.

The Tory leader said that there were plenty of jobs available in Britain.  He pointed to vacancy rates and the inflow of foreign labour as proof of his statement.

Because the Tory approach was based on successful models from around the world this was why, he said, that it was "change you could believe in" - quoting Barack Obama.

Mr Cameron concluded his remarks by inviting Gordon Brown to take up the Tory proposals and he promised to work with the Prime Minister in implementing them should he choose to do so.

Chris Grayling then highlighted the four reasons why the Tory programme was much superior to Labour's existing approach:

1. SCALE: All 2.6 million incapacity benefit claimants would be assessed, for example, whereas Labour was only assessing new claimants.
2. SANCTIONS: There would be loss of benefits for repeatedly declining job opportunities or for a two year period of worklessness.
3. MANDATORY WORK ELEMENT: For all JSA claimants who had been claiming for two years.
4. FINANCIAL CHANGES: Savings from reduced benefit claims would immediately be channeled into funding successful back-to-work programmes.  The private and voluntary sector operators of back to work schemes would only be paid in installments and those installments would be subject to the previously unemployed remaining in work.

During questions ConservativeHome raised the issue highlighted by Dr Rachel Joyce in one of the weekend threads.  Rachel had written:

"As regards incapacity benefit - the regular medical checks need to be performed by independent doctors. GPs will tell you that they find it very difficult to say no to patients when they ask for sick notes - because of their doctor-patient relationship."

Chris Grayling confirmed that the medical examination would be independent although a GP's opinion would be available to the assessor.

Interestingly the questions from the press were largely of the 'is this tough enough?' variety.  Perhaps the mood has shifted in Britain and there is a real appetite for reform.

Before the press conference David Cameron spoke to participants in GAIN, a Tomorrow's People project that you can read about here.  In the New Year's Honours Debbie Scott of Tomorrow's People received an OBE.  Few people are more deserving of an honour.

If you see a rough sleeper at Victoria Station tomorrow night, it might be a Tory MP

The Observer, seriously, and The Sunday Telegraph, flippantly, both report that Tory housing spokesman Grant Shapps is to sleep rough tomorrow night to highlight the growing problem of homelessness in Britain. 

The sleep-out will be dismissed by many as a stunt but Mr Shapps hopes it will serve to highlight the growing problem of homeless children.  This is what Mr Shapps recently told the Press Association:

"For 130,000 homeless children in England, this Christmas is unlikely to be much fun. These children are being forgotten and left behind. Lack of permanent accommodation can have a grave impact on a child's health and development with devastating consequences.  The fact that the number of homeless children has doubled over the past 10 years highlights the Government's dismal record in creating more social housing. It is hard to escape the conclusion that their policies have been a dramatic failure in this area."

Mr Shapps follows in a great line of Tories escaping the Westminster village for some 'real life experience'...

• There was Michael Portillo's time as an assistant at ASDA;
• David Willetts sleeping on a council estate in Birmingham after the launch of Iain Duncan Smith's badly-named Help The Vulnerable campaign;
• David Cameron staying with a Muslim family in Birmingham;
• Nigel Evans recently slept out in Parliament Square as part of a Burma protest;
• And a whole series of Tories - including Ed Vaizey - committing to spend weeks with voluntary organisations as part of a Centre for Social Justice initiative.

The CSJ initiative is the hardest to dismiss as a stunt.  It involves our MPs spending serious time with a charity - getting to know their work and challenges.  Over the last two years a number of MPs have got to know much more about the problems of homelessness, addiction and debt because of these 'immersion weeks'.

PS ConservativeHome's Tim Montgomerie can claim to be one of the first Tories to do this work.  In 1994 he lived as a 'single parent' for a week for BBC2's Lifeswaps programme to see if he could survive on benefits (picture above).  He did just about manage!

Poll shows Conservative commitment to human rights abroad

Our most recent survey asked members their opinion on this statement:

A Conservative Prime Minister should always raise human rights issues when he meets the leaders of nations that oppress their citizens

A strong majority of 73% agreed, with 18% disagreeing. That so many Conservatives sign up to the principle that we should always raise human rights concerns with foreign leaders is very encouraging, particularly as so many Conservatives are understandably wary of the phrase "human rights" after some of the non-sensical domestic incarnations of it. When Sam Burke proposed the idea of a Human Rights Minister who would take responsibility for such issues, an idea advocated by the Conservative Human Rights Commission this year, most of your comments were pretty hostile about the concept.

In this context we're more interested in, for example, the right not to be used as a human minesweeper (or, if you prefer, the freedom to have legs). The fusty diplomatic attitude that such things are internal affairs that we shouldn't rock the boat over seems to be fading away in this country, if not in China! Happily, the 73% can be confident that the next Conservative PM will do as they wish as William Hague has said at least three times that human rights should be at the heart of our foreign policy.

The survey also questioned members about whether:

Britain should increase aid spending every year as part of our commitment to tackle global poverty

Just 26% agreed with this one, with 60% disagreeing. Many would have been dissuaded by the open-ended commitment to increase spending year on year, but support for the sentiment is still surprisingly low. Conservatives have good reasons to be sceptical of the long-term effectiveness of aid, fearing that it disincentivises home-grown solutions and perpetuates poverty. Conservative councillor and former aid work Jack Perschke recently articulated these concerns on our Platform section.

There's no doubt though that if managed and targeted well, aid can save and dramatically improve lives at relatively little cost to us as an advanced and prosperous nation. Samuel Coates visited refugee camps on either side of the Thai/Burma border last month. In such camps families either have access to medical care provided by aid agencies, or don't have any at all. It's not a case of them getting on their bike.

Britain currently gives 0.5% of national income to international development, the highest share since 1964 but still short of the agreed international target of 0.7%. If you translate all the principles that David Cameron has outlined over the last two years about social responsibility from the domestic to the international arena, this doesn't seem too unreasonable a proportion for the government to contribute alongside third sector initiatives.

An Englishman's home may be his castle, but it's ultimately not in his interest to stay behind the drawbridge. Britain is one of 192 villagers in this world. We have a duty to not only build up and defend our own house but to stand up to the neighbour beating up his wife, and help feed the neighbour at the other end of the road who has fallen on hard times.

As some (by no means all) on the Left continue to equivocate and appease, can we add this principle to the reasons why Conservatives are today's progressives?

Gillian Gibbons is free but two-and-a-half million Darfuris remain refugees from the Khartoum regime

Gillian Gibbons - the 'Teddy Teacher' - has been released and thank God for that.  Credit to Sayeeda Warsi for her part in helping to negotiate her release.

I only wish that as much attention had been paid to the injustice of Ms Gibbons' situiation as should be paid to the much greater outrages taking place in Sudan.

After Rwanda the world said "never again" but at least 200,000 people - possibly as many as 400,000 - have died in the Darfur region of this country.  But the peacekeeping force promised by the world to protect the refugees from the conflict has only reached a quarter to a third of the promised strength.  None of the 24 helicopters needed as "force-multipliers" have been provided.

Baroness Cox told Radio 4 last week that people are being forced to convert to Islam in return for desperately needed aid.

The Khartoum regime - propped up by China - is odious.  Sudan's President (pictured) deserves no thanks for his pardon.

If you want to make a small contribution to Darfur please visit Aegis' Fund for Darfur.

Sayeeda Warsi on mission to Sudan to free Gillian Gibbons

New Tory peer, Baroness Warsi is accompanying Labour peer Lord Ahmed on a mercy mission to Khartoum to attempt to secure the release of Gillian Gibbons, the teacher who has been jailed as punishment for her naming of a teddy bear as Mohammed.

The BBC reports that the two Muslim peers are travelling on their own initiative.  That's important.  They may need to offer soothing words to the Khartoum regime in order to secure Ms Gibbon's release.  Those soothing words should come from them - not from the British Government.

Other thought-leaders should have been more careful with their words.  The unholy alliance of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Federation of Student Islamic Societies, in separate interventions, called the response of the Sudanese government  "disproportionate".  No. No. No.  I couldn't agree more with what Danny Finkelstein wrote on Comment is Central yesterday:

"And the verdict was not disproportionate.  The arrest and imprisonment of this teacher was a political act, not a cultural or religious one. Its aim is not cultural preservation but terrorising the population. It is the classic move of a totalitarian state supported by a mob.  Why wasn't it disproportionate? This word implies that some sort of censure was required but that imprisonment was too much. The punishment wasn't out of proportion. It was unwarranted, outrageous, insupportable.  The use of the phrase "disproportionate" is offensive."

Sudan is a state that has become a master of obstructionism.  It has played the United Nations at every turn.  It has used every trick in the book to delay the deployment of an international force to protect the people of Darfur.  And as Baroness Cox told yesterday's World at One it is using aid from Saudi Arabia to force people to convert to Islam in the nation's south.  If the sad Gibbons incident forces people to wise up about the Sudanese regime it won't be all bad.

Cameron takes Tory message of social justice to Labour heartlands

There is more evidence this morning that Labour's anti-poverty programmes aren't working:

1. Tory Housing spokesman Grant Shapps MP has discovered that the number of rough sleepers may not be 498 as Labour's figures insist but may be 1,300.  It appears that the 271 local authorities who reported having 0 to 10 rough sleepers are automatically counted as having zero rough sleepers by the Government.  Click here for a PDF of Grant's Roughly Sleeping report.
2. A report from the Policy Exchange think tank finds that £30bn spent on urban regeneration has had no real impact.  The authors conclude: "Successful towns are becoming more successful, poorer towns are being less successful."  Dr Oliver Marc Hartwich of Policy Exchange told the BBC: "The big picture is the same: towns which receive large amounts of urban policy funding are not converging to the UK average.  If anything, they are slipping farther behind while successful towns are stretching their lead."

Today is therefore a good day for the Conservatives to go into the heart of Labour territory and offer a different approach to fighting poverty.

David Cameron and Iain Duncan Smith are in Manchester today in the first of a series of initiatives by the Centre for Social Justice that will highlight the social challenges facing Britain's major cities.  The graphic on the right identifies some key problems in Manchester.

The Conservative leader will use the Manchester visit to launch the 'Conservative Co-operative Movement'.  The Co-op movement, which will be chaired by Jesse Norman, our Hereford candidate, will help people form groups to take control of their local public services.

David Cameron is expected to say the following:

"Over 100 schools in Sweden are co-ops. Over 600 schools in Spain.  So I want to explore how we can create a new generation of co-operative schools in Britain - funded by the taxpayer but owned by parents and the local community."

He will continue:

"The co-op movement has generally been associated with the political left.  I think that's a shame. First, because there have always been people on the centre-right concerned about the effects of capitalism on the social fabric.  Men like Carlyle and Disraeli, following the tradition of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith himself, who recognised at the outset of the industrial revolution that profit was not the only organising principle of a healthy society.  And second, because the co-operative principle captures precisely the vision of social progress that we on the centre-right believe in: the idea of social responsibility, that we're all in this together, that there is such a thing as society - it's just not the same thing as the state."

Related link: The poor are getting poorer

Harriet Harman is right...

Now I've got your attention!

BBC reports that Harriet Harman wants to ban newspaper adverts for certain escort services:

"Ms Harman said the "ugly" adverts were published in some local newspapers alongside those for skip hire and lost pets.  She added: "You see 'girls for sale - girls from Europe, from Africa, from Thailand, fresh girls every week, 18 to 25'.  What sort of message does this send in the 21st century?  We do know that there is a big problem of people trafficking.""

I agree with her.  Human trafficking is a massive problem.  This proposal won't change things fundamentally.  Advertising of these 'services' will largely migrate to the internet but society should send a signal about this trade in "fresh girls every week".

I hope Conservatives look kindly on any Government proposals.

Related link: Davis urges Government to ratify human trafficking convention

Making British Poverty History

David Cameron is here at Chance UK in Finsbury Park to meet staff and he will speak at 11am about tackling the welfare state.

Download a full copy of what he will say here. It looks like a great speech. It's also pretty comprehensive at 2500 words.

11.15am: Cameron hasn't spoken just yet but here's a synopsis of what he will say once Iain Duncan-Smith and the Chief Exec of Chance UK have finished the introductions...

He will challenge the notion that poverty can't be defeated: "when I say that we can make British poverty history please do not tell me that it cannot be done". The three elements of Labour's failed approach are tax credits, undermining the voluntary sector, undermining families:

• "By building the tax credit system around a highly simplified model of human behaviour, and failing to take into account the way people really live, it was sadly inevitable that things would go badly wrong."
• "Instead of setting social enterprises and community groups free to help people, Labour have tied them up with bureaucratic constraints and complex funding processes. And rather than encouraging them to take on new challenges, Labour have actively squeezed them out."
• "In his tax credit system, a couple living together get exactly the same Working Tax Credits as a lone parent with the same income. This means that if a couple splits up, their Working Tax Credits rise."

IDS tearful as Conference awards him sustained ovation

A tear or two appeared in Iain Duncan Smith's eye this afternoon during a sustained standing ovation.  He had addressed the Conference without notes on the cause that has come to define his politics - the mending of Britain's broken society.  I have to say I was a bit tearful, too, as I stood watching at the back.  Earlier today I'd spent over an hour with Iain and Betsy and he then only had a sketchy idea of what he was going to say.  He spoke from the heart this afternoon on a subject he has come to understand so well.  Don't just think it was me - Ben Brogan describes Conference's response as "huge".

After describing the nature of Britain's broken society he recommended support for marriage, ending the couple penalty, pioneer schools inspired by the USA's Charter model, premium pay for inner city headteachers, a massive increase in drug rehab, encouragement of credit unions and support for a more independent voluntary sector.  He ended by saying that the Conservative Party couldn't be a truly patriotic party if it didn't love all of Britain's people.

I am so proud of the Centre for Social Justice and all that it has achieved under Philippa Stroud and Cameron Watt.  Even in the BC period (Before Coulson), David Cameron's enthusiasm for this social justice project made the election of a Conservative government worthwhile.  With this week's announcements on tax its doubly worthwhile.  I hope David Cameron can capture some of IDS' passion for his speech tomorrow.

Thoughts on next steps for modernisation...

Later this afternoon I'll post on 'next steps for the core vote issues' but here are a few thoughts on what, not particularly accurately, could be described as 'moderniser or change issues'.

Although I'm very glad to see the party 'rebalancing' it is important that the party does not retreat into the core vote territory that was insufficient at recent General Elections.  I have no doubt that David Cameron will remain committed to his change agenda but it's important that the change agenda is also fully consistent with conservative principles...

Continuing to emphasise the public services. Our polices on schools and hospitals are a bit timid but they're much superior to the command and control policies of Gordon Brown.

The environment.  Earlier this month I promoted the idea of 'achievable environmentalism'.  I mentioned planting trees, recycling, cutting waste, investing in renewables, protecting natural habitats.  John Redwood has written today about "practical environmentalism" and highlighted more fuel efficient vehicles, better energy conservation and more intelligent traffic management.  Conservatives should be a party of conservation but not a party of higher green taxes or heavy restrictions on development (eg airport expansion).

Social justice.  At Tuesday's Carlton Club dinner David Cameron noted that there were 600,000 more people living in extreme poverty.  The very poorest have got poorer under Labour.  Britain needs a Conservative approach to poverty.  Stronger families.  A freer, more dynamic voluntary sector.  Zero tolerance of crime and drugs.  School choice.  I have no doubt that the leadership is 100% committed to these core themes of a 'progressive conservatism'.

International development.  It was overshadowed by the fuss over the Rwanda trip, but Peter Lilley produced an excellent report on fighting global poverty.  I hope Andrew Mitchell, Alan Duncan and George Osborne will be able to embrace many of Peter's recommendations this week.  I'd also like the party to take more action against the trade of arms to despotic regimes.  I also wish we'd spoken out against the cancellation of the BAe-Saudi bribery investigation.

Respect for gay people.  Many people oppose David Cameron's belief that gay couples should be recognised in a similar way to married couples.  I don't.  I support the freedom of religious adoption agencies to be able to refuse to place children with gay couples but it's right that a modern Conservative Party is a defender of the rights of adult gay people.

Candidate diversity.  I never supported the A-list but there are many advantages in having more diverse candidates.  More people with roots in the north and in the public and voluntary sectors, for example.  Candidate diversity shouldn't just be about more women and more ethnic minorities.  We should be actively recruiting candidates with real knowledge of poverty-fighting and environmental protection.

Changes of tone.  Another change for the party to maintain is the change of tone.  Sometimes our party's rhetoric has been too harsh.  In the last campaign our posters accusing Tony Blair of being a liar reflected more on us than on him.  Our campaigning can still be negative but it shouldn't be personal.

Public trust local charities - not the central state - to help people in need

Yesterday evening we posted about some of the headline findings from a YouGov poll for the TaxPayers' Alliance.  One other finding deserves its own discussion.

The TPA investigated how Britons would choose to spend £200 that had to be allocated to a good cause.  It's the exact same question that YouGov asked for the Centre for Social Justice in July 2005 and it has produced very similar results...

The results reveal that very few people would entrust the £200 to local or central government.  Fifteen times as many people have more faith in a local charity, a campaigning organisation or a third world charity.  Local organisations are preferred to central organisations.  Organisations undertaking practical work are preferred to campaigning organisations.

My own work at the CSJ and during the Listening to Britain's Churches consultation convinces me that innovative, community-based charities are much better at poverty-fighting than the state.  I would love to see the voucherisation of a large proportion of the money that the state currently dispenses to the third sector.  Other stakeholder-directed funding mechanisms would include more use of matched funding and asset transfer.  The recent IDS report included a number of recommendations as to how the best poverty-fighting organisations might receive more help from the state.  Cameron Watt discusses the main parties' different approaches to the voluntary sector here.