The focus on the broken society is absolutely right. And the clarification that David Cameron has made is absolutely right too. No one is saying all of society is broken, and no one is saying it is smashed beyond repair. Not at all - there are great aspects of our society which we should celebrate, and there are definitely ways to mend the broken parts. I want to pay a huge tribute to Iain Duncan Smith, Tim Montgomerie, Phillippa Stroud and everyone who has been involved in establishing the the Centre for Social Justice and playing a crucial role in bring the social justice agenda to the heart of our party's agenda. I have been deeply moved by David Cameron's speeches on the theme, today and on previous occasions, and by Iain Duncan Smith's tireless championing of the cause too.
There are many dimensions to the broken society - broken families, drug addiction, unemployment, debt, poverty, crime, anti-social behaviour, prison. I want to add just three strands to the theme, and illustrate them in a very light-hearted but symbolic way. I believe that in Britain today, there are significant parts of our society which have a disregard for, and in some cases even lack of awareness of, our traditions; there are significant parts of society which do not care, or do not know, about our heritage, our history and our Judeo-Christian values; and there are parts of society, even in the parts that are not so visibly broken, where an appreciation for the work ethic, standards and initiative has declined drastically -- and I would include Whitehall in that.
To illustrate these points, let me share three experiences I have had. They may seem flippant, innocent, amusing, and to an extent they are. But they are illustrative of trends.
First of all, in Birmingham on Monday afternoon, I slipped out of the conference to return to my hotel for an hour's break - to check my emails and, I hoped, have a cup of tea. When I got to the hotel, I went into the bar. No one else was there, and the barmaid was watching television. I asked if I could have a cup of tea. "No," she said, looking rather vacant. "Oh?" I replied, in a mix of surprise and irritation. "Why not?" The reply was straight out of Fawlty Towers: "Not at this time of day, I'm afraid". It was 5pm, and I felt so close to asking her if I couldn't get a cup of tea at 5pm, what time of day could I? The English tradition of afternoon tea is not exactly something that is at the heart of social justice - but it was indicative of the hotel barmaid's complete disinterest in providing me, a paying customer, with a service (and a bizarre rejection of the tradition that we English do have a cup of tea in the afternoon).
Later that same evening, I had another bizarre parallel-universe experience. I was trying to get to Birmingham Cathedral, to hear Canon Andrew White at a Conservative Christian Fellowship fringe meeting. I didn't know the way from the ICC, and so I asked a policeman: "Please could you tell me the way to the cathedral". He looked at me blankly (and I think the police did a great job in Birmingham during our conference, so I am not knocking them, merely pointing out something of wider concern). "The cathedral?", he asked thoughtfully. After a few seconds, he said he did not know, and he called another policeman. That policeman did not know either, so they called another - and only after quite a pause did he remember where the cathedral was. He pointed me in the right direction. Along the way, I got a little lost, and so I stopped another policeman. Same thing - the notion of a 'cathedral' in Birmingham baffled him. If our police do not even know where our historic churches and cathedrals are, it is surely a sign of how far we have come from an awareness of our history and heritage.
Lastly, there are the receptionists at the Foreign Office. Go there and see for yourselves. Ask yourself, do they really project the best image of Britain? I refer you to an article I wrote last year on this site. The FCO receptionists leave at 5pm. There's no attempt at customer service, work ethic, flexibility, initiative or standards, as the anecdote in my Platform piece shows.
These are all, as I say, light-hearted and not by themselves meaningful anecdotes. But they are symbolic. If we do not know, understand or care about our traditions, our heritage, our roots and our values, how can we tackle the major challenges of social breakdown, radical Islamism and terrorism? If the first impression visitors to our Foreign Office get is a dosey, dopey, lethargic, unhelpful and badly presented receptionist, how can we take pride in our country? And yet - with the pledges made by David Cameron, Michael Gove and Nick Herbert, for example, and the ideas submitted by the CSJ, we can - and we must - turn our country around.
