The earliest days of the social justice agenda

I've sometimes disagreed publicly with George Osborne and Danny Finkelstein on tax policy so let me come to their support on something that the Shadow Chancellor tells today's Metro:

"In an exclusive interview, the shadow chancellor said he and other junior Tory MPs at the time could see the party was not 'on track' when William Hague and then Iain Duncan Smith were leaders - but they kept quiet. He added: "We should have spoken out more than we did at the time. But we didn't and it was only really four years ago when David Cameron ran for leadership that we really started making those arguments in public."

All I can say is that I know how supportive George* and Danny** were of the social justice agenda from the earliest days.  When I was at Conservative Central Office from 1999 onwards - working for what became the 'Renewing One Nation' unit and ultimately the CSJ - they were constantly supportive.  The bureauacracy at CCO frustrated everything we tried to do.  We only had to ring Danny or George and they ensured our communications to William Hague got through.  I know they argued for what 'R1N' was doing, too.  This is my public thank you.

Tim Montgomerie

* George was Political Secretary to William Hague until 2001, **Danny was Head of the Policy.