ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

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.

A Conservative government would offer 'National (Citizen) Service' to all sixteen year-olds

'Bring back national service!' is one of the favourite calls of traditionalists and the Tory leader is today returning to an idea that he first floated when he was running for the Conservative leadership (see here).  Mr Cameron will travel to Bolton today where he will launch a Green Paper calling for a 'National Citizen Service'.  Olympic medalist and boxer Amir Khan (pictured) will be at the launch.  The scheme has been scaled back somewhat since the leadership contest.  It will be weeks rather than months in length and the idea of compulsory service has also been dropped.  It will have the following key characteristics (according to today's Mail):

• It will be a six week commitment - running during the summer months.
• 650,000 sixteen year-olds will be encouraged to undertake aid work, visit the elderly or undertake military training.
• There will be a cash award for graduates of the Service - 50% of the award will go to the individual volunteer and half to a charity of the individual's choice.
• Employers would be encouraged to take note of an applicant's involvement in the Service in the same way they currently take note of Prince's Trust and Duke of Edinburgh involvement.
• At the end of the course the volunteer will have to make a pledge of allegiance to Britain and explain what they have learnt. 

In the past Mr Cameron has said that he hopes the scheme could be seen as a nationally recognised 'transition to adulthood' or 'rite of passage': "In our society, the closest thing to a rite of passage is probably going out and getting completely hammered on your eighteenth birthday.  I think programmes like this could provide a positive alternative... It could become a recognised 'stamp' of adulthood in Britain."

The cost of funding the Service has not yet been calculated.  A new policy group under Michael Gove's chairmanship will do that work.  The Conservative leader sees National Citizen Service as an essential part of his long-term aim to repair 'Britain's broken society'.  He issued this statement:

"It will mix people from different countries.  North and south, black and white, rich and poor. They will be putting something back into the community.  It will be a way of learning respect for our country and each other just like national service was.  This could really change our country for the better. I feel very passionate about this. It should be a part of every child's experience.  You should go from primary school to secondary school, and then at 16 your citizen service. We cannot afford not to do this."

The Sun welcomes the idea - calling it "imaginative and optimistic".

Project Cameron's key achievements: The renewal of the party's one nation tradition

Another Tory donor has attacked David Cameron today.  This attack follows the press hoopla about yesterday’s defection of an unknown 26-year-old to Labour.  It’s a good time to remind ourselves of some of David Cameron’s achievements.  In a series of articles over the next few days ConservativeHome will be doing just that.

Writing for today’s Guardian David Cameron underlines his continuing commitment to social justice.  It is one of the outstanding successes of his time as leader that the Conservative Party has renewed what once would have been called its one nation tradition – its commitment to govern for all Britons.

In his article the Conservative leader notes the relative fall in living standards for what Ann Widdecombe called “the forgotten decent” – people “trapped in deprivation through no immediate fault of their own, unable to climb into the middle classes because of a series of barriers that completely block the route.”

The party will today be outlining plans for Social Enterprise Zones.  “SEZs,” Mr Cameron writes “will give councils the power to create a radically deregulated environment for social enterprises and voluntary bodies.”  Practical proposals will include tax relief in SEZs and “the creation of a community bank, a sort of central bank for the social enterprise sector.”

David Cameron in Rwanda

Yesterday Stephen Crabb MP wrote about why David Cameron was right to press ahead with his visit to Rwanda. In this video, posted on WebCameron, David Cameron explains why it was important for him to go:

Reports from Rwanda

Brushing off the "non-story" of a few MPs expressing no-confidence in him, Cameron pointed to the Rwanda trip as more representative of the spirit of the Party at the moment:

"I think the spirit of the Conservative Party is embodied by the Members of Parliament; Conservative activists, including doctors and electricians and lawyers who are out here in Rwanda, learning about this country, learning about delivering aid effectively, learning about how we help sub-Saharan Africa get richer."

Those of us not in the sub-Saharan desert can keep track of how things are going by checking out a few blogs that are being updated each day:

• Iain Dale's there with an 18 Doughty Street camera girl, and is writing detailed daily dairy entries about his experience visiting the various projects: see Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3.
• Candidate and blogger Vicky Ford is writing about her project at a school, after some difficulties getting there via Nairobi.
• David Mundell MP has written over a dozen posts about his trip so far, with particular focus on the aftermath of the genocide (the photo above is one of his).

It's a shame Cameron could only stay one night, but the message that Conservatives care about development issues - and see mileage in being seen to care - is encouraging. The forty, don't forget, paid their own way to do this and are doing a lot of graft off-camera. Meeting victims of poverty and genocide face-to-face will no doubt have a profound effect on them, and that's worth a lot more than cynical comments about it being just a PR stunt.

Deputy Editor