In the social justice debate on the main stage this morning, Shadow Work and Pensions secretary Philip Hammond spoke about the urgency of getting the 'betrayed' millions of economically inactive adults back to work.
Hammond described how Labour has taken the easy option of relying on a huge level of immigrant labour to fill Britain's skills gap whilst leaving almost five million British adults languishing indefinitely on welfare. His words imply that the Conservative Party is preparing the ground to embrace the radical welfare reform that will surely be needed to rectify this problem. Strong families were also vital in tackling poverty, he said.
Earlier in the morning Iain Duncan Smith won a standing ovation for his speech on social justice. IDS set out the scale of social breakdown in contemporary Britain and implored delgates to 'make their politics fit their lives' by putting social justice at the heart of their campaigning. Tories are among the most compassionate and caring in their communities and need not be shy about demonstrating this. The Social Justice Policy Group, which was launched by David Cameron last December and is chaired by IDS, will publish its interim report in December. For more information and to input into its work, visit the new website www.povertydebate.com.
Caroline Spelman chaired a stimulating panel discussion on a broad range of social topics with contributions from Big Issue founder John Bird and Community Action Network chief Adele Blakeborough. Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali spoke of the need to challenge the tendency of government to encourage faith-based groups working in prisons and elsewhere to water-down the religious aspect of their activities. Without their faith motivation these groups would not be doing any of their extensive and excellent work.
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