ConservativeHome's ToryDiary

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.

Tories emphasise police reform, lower taxation and help for new parents on 'momentum Sunday'

Tories regaining the initiative (1): Action on crime

In an article for The Sunday Telegraph David Davis promises:

• "Dramatic reductions in the current 29 central government targets for the police. In their place, we would introduce directly-elected police commissioners, to make police forces directly accountable to their local communities."
• "As part of wider reform, a Conservative government will abolish "statutory charging" in straightforward magistrates court cases, restoring discretion to the custody sergeant and eliminating the reams of paperwork that police prepare for the Crown Prosecution Service. This will free up to a million police hours per year, allowing officers to re-focus on fighting crime."
• "We will allow defendants at police stations to appear before magistrates by video for a range of hearings, cutting the time wasted on travel to and from court and waiting for a case to be heard."

The ICM survey for The Sunday Telegraph shows that the Tories enjoy a 48% to 26% lead over Labour on who voters trust on crime.

Tories regaining the initiative (2): Lower taxation

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, George Osborne promises to 'plot a path away' from Labour's CGT hike:

"There is not the scope at the moment for a big overall cut in taxes. But we shouldn't be raising taxes. The Government has got this crazy plan for a £700 million increase in capital gains tax, which hits entrepreneurs. There is no other country in the world that thinks the answer is to increase taxes on enterprise. We are going to plot a path away from that."

Later this week the shadow Chancellor will unveil a report that details how Britain is becoming less and less competitive.  He will also adopt some of the pro-enterprise recommendations contained in John Redwood's competitiveness report.

Tories regaining the initiative (3): Maternity nurses for all

Tories are considering offering six-hour-a-day maternity nurses to provide advice on everything from bathing to breastfeeding in the first week of a new baby's life.

Michael Gove writes about this proposal for The Observer.  The BBC has more on the policy.

Tories to review rape laws

5pm update: CWO Chairman introduced Cameron by saying she admired the challenge he put to Brown at conference to call an election, and that "If you have the women on your side you really can't go wrong!". Cameron then said that he had great diet advice: make a speech that everyone tells you is the most important one of your life, and don't use notes. He said he was advised to "ride the dip" during the summer's problems and that sometimes it felt like a journey to the centre of the Earth!

The audience was shocked by his recounting of the sad story of Lindsay Armstrong, and murmured strong approval when he cited the fact that half of young men believe there are times when forced sex is okay as an example of moral collapse. The hall was packed with over 700 women. In addition to David Cameron's end-of-day speech speakers included William Hague on human rights and Sir Christopher Meyer being interviewed by Iain Dale.

1.30pm: Read PDF of Cameron's full CWO speech.

At 5.7% of all cases reported to the police, Britain has the lowest conviction rates for rape in Europe, according to research by the Conservatives.

The research will be unveiled later today by David Cameron when he addresses the Conservative Women's Organisation in a speech he will deliver at the QEII Conference Centre in London.  Amber Rudd, our Hastings and Rye candidate, will be writing a report on the conference for ConservativeHome in the next day or two.

The Conservative leader will note studies that "have shown that as many as one in two young men believe there are some circumstances when it's okay to force a woman to have sex."  "To my mind," he will say, "this is an example of moral collapse."

The speech is covered throughout the newspapers but is splashed in the Daily Mail.  In addition to calling for cultural change to address "over-sexualisation" of British society, Mr Cameron will argue that consent should be taught as a central feature of sex education in schools.  In a further sign of his growing importance to the Tory leader, Nick Herbert, Shadow Secretary of State for Justice will oversee a review of legislation on rape to ensure that punishments are "proportionate to the crime".

PS Last Friday The Daily Mail's Ben Brogan wondered if David Cameron would address the issue of abortion in his CWO speech.  In his blog post he said that the Prime Minister will probably "follow the science and stick with the status quo" on the abortion time limit.  Ben also said that Mr Brown "may hope for signs that the Conservative frontbench is out of synch with public opinion".  I fear that both of Ben's two points are very debateable:

1. The science on the abortion time limit is contested with the majority of MPs on the science and technology committee saying that the current time limit is right but two Tory MPs dissented from that majority.  Ben's own newspaper recently editorialised in favour of the dissenters.  There is international evidence that a foetus can survive outside of the womb before 24 weeks.
2. Ben's second point on public opinion is also contentious.  Recent evidence suggested that the public could be persuaded of tighter abortion laws: "81% supported a "compulsory cooling-off period between diagnosis of pregnancy and abortion."  68% supported "a substantial reduction in the upper time limit for abortion to around 13 weeks, bringing us into line with our European neighbours.""

Highlights from David Cameron's immigration and population speech

Further to our earlier post, key sections of David Cameron's population speech are pasted below (full text here).

During the Q&A after the speech, Mr Cameron declined to say how much he wanted net immigration reduced but promised that Conservatives would seek a "substantial" change.  He ruled out any attempts to influence the number of children that families choose to have.  He dismissed suggestions that this speech - his first on immigration and related issues - amounted to a shift from the centre ground.  These issues, he said, concerned everyone - from the right, left and centre.

Immigration must be reduced: "We need policy to reduce the level of net immigration.  And we need policy to strengthen society and combat atomisation.  The right approach, as I will argue today, has three components.  First, a sober and forensic understanding – and a total acceptance of - the facts: the scale and nature of this challenge.  Second, action to ensure that our population grows at a more sustainable rate.  Third, action to prepare properly for that sustainable rate of growth."

Population growth is accelerating: "Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest that our population of 60.6 million today will grow to nearly 63 million by 2011, 65 million by 2016, and more than 71 million by 2031.  These projected increases are on a different scale to what we have seen in the recent past.  In the last twenty years, our population grew by around four million.  Over the next twenty years, it’s projected to grow by around nine million – more than twice as fast."

Natural demography is a secondary factor in population growth: "Only around thirty per cent of the projected increase in our population by 2031 is due to higher birth rates and longer life-spans... more than two thirds - of the increase in our population each year is attributable to net migration."

Sources of immigration: "In 2005, the latest year for which detailed figures are available, 145,000 migrants to Britain were from the European Union, mostly from the new accession countries in the east, and accounting for around thirty per cent of the total.  91,000 were British citizens returning to live here.  Another 189,000 came from the Commonwealth.  And 140,000 from elsewhere in the world.  But these bald figures do not give a very clear picture of what is happening.  We must not confuse stock and flow.  What matters in terms of our overall population is not who comes, but who stays."

Immigration has largely been positive for the economy: "When it comes to the economic effects of immigration, I would summarise the position as follows.  Broadly, immigration has a positive impact on our economy.  But there are negative effects too, and any responsible population strategy must distinguish between them, avoiding a broad-brush approach in favour of policy responses that are appropriately tailored to the varying economic effects of immigration, and which seek to share the costs and benefits fairly."

Cameron promises coherent strategy to manage net immigration and its consequences

Later this morning David Cameron will deliver a speech on population and immigration.  He'll be addressing the Policy Exchange think tank.  I'll be there and will report with more afterwards.

It is expected that Mr Cameron will say that Britain needs a much more coherent strategy to cope with Britain's rising population.  Britain's population is projected to rise by more than ten million over the next 25 years (although population projections are notoriously unreliable).

He is expected to highlight the need to...

• Curb net immigration.  The Conservative Party has proposed an annual cap on immigration from outside the EU but has limited powers to control immigration from within the Union.
• Improve border controls.
• Invest in family life so that we reduce the pressure on the housing stock caused by splits in households.
• Improve the skills base of British workers so there is less demand for qualified workers from overseas.

The Conservative leader will say that the Blair-Brown failure to get to grips with Britain's demographic challenges is a large part of the reason for frustratingly slow progress in the NHS, schools and in housing:

"This country faces a choice. Some people argue that the demographic changes I've talked about are just an inevitable part of the modern world and that policymakers had better get used to it. This assumes that we can't do much about family failure, we can't get significant numbers of people off benefits and into work, and that we use immigration to deal with our capacity shortages. That is Gordon Brown's choice. But I don't think it's sustainable - for a simple reason."

Mr Cameron's focus on immigration - the CCHQ's advance press notice promises a speech on The Challenges of a Growing Population - is a triumph for the traditionalists advising him.  Certain leading modernisers will have opposed this speech and they have been over-ruled.

The speech comes after renewed public anxiety about the level of immigration into Britain.  The issue regularly tops the list of voter concerns.  Simon Heffer and Peter Oborne both wrote about the subject (in characteristically strong terms) on Saturday.

Also well worth reading is the leader in last week's Business.  These were the concluding paragraphs:

"The biggest danger associated with immigration is that it becomes an excuse not to tackle the deep seated problems that have been created by the welfare culture, with migrants used as substitute labour while a British-born underclass is paid not to work. It is a national scandal that, while youth unemployment is increasing, 43% of the Eastern European workers arriving are aged 18 to 24.

Immigration has been at the heart of Britain’s success; newcomers continue to make huge and essential contributions to culture, the arts, the professions, sports, academia and, of course, business. Over the past few years, immigrants have fuelled Britain’s economic renaissance; long may it remain so.

But it is also undeniable that the country is buckling under the strain; to avoid the public turning against migrants, the government must make Britain more like America: a country that accepts that it is a nation of immigrants, seeks to integrate them and builds new homes and schools to accommodate them. Pretending that levels of immigration are much more modest than they really are, or that they are not causing any problems, is no longer a tenable strategy."

Reducing the level of low-skilled immigration into Britain and investing in our own young workforce must be at the heart of the Conservatives' promise of an integrated 'population strategy'.

Jill Kirby, champion of marriage and lower taxation, is new Director of Centre for Policy Studies

One of the most interesting weekend stories appeared in Saturday's Telegraph.  In yet another example of Copycat Labour we learnt that Chief Secretary to the Treasury Andy Burnham conceded that there were moral arguments for using the tax system to encourage marriage.  Had he cleared this with Harriet Harman, I wonder?  The feminist Ms Harman has attacked David Cameron's support for marriage as 'back to basics in a open necked shirt'.

If Mr Burnham is genuine it is hugely to be welcomed.  The evidence for the importance of marriage for the upbringing of children is overwhelming and a cross-party consensus in favour of rebuilding the family would be very valuable for child welfare and for the war on poverty.

There are many people who can be credited for making marriage fashionable again within policy circles.  Guy Hordern of the Renewing One Nation project (2000 to 2003) is one person who has campaigned on these issues for at least twenty years.  Dr Samantha Callan, who chaired Iain Duncan Smith's family policy taskforce, is another.  One of the first and most effective champions was Jill Kirby (pictured).  Jill has authored a number of papers for the Centre for Policy Studies that have set out the case for rebuilding the two parent family and marriage, in particular.  Her Broken Hearts paper (pdf) was, perhaps, the breakthrough publication.  Over the last six years Jill Kirby has chaired the CPS' working party on social and family policy.  She was also a member of Lord Forsyth's Tax Reform Commission.

The CPS, founded by Margaret Thatcher and Keith Joseph in 1974, has announced that Jill Kirby is to replace Ruth Lea as its Director when Ruth steps down on 5th November.  Ruth, will stay as a CPS Board Member, but will focus upon developing Global Vision - the campaigning think tank established earlier this year to advocate a looser UK-EU relationship.  Jill has promised to defend the CPS' principles and contend for a Britain where the frontiers of the state are rolled back and families enjoy more control over their own lives.  I regard Jill as a friend and am personally thrilled at her appointment.  I have no doubt that she'll be a very successful and innovative Director.

On Friday ConservativeHome set out some of the challenges facing centre right think tanks.

Only millionaires will pay inheritance tax under a Conservative government

More soon.  Click on the image on the right to enlarge the leaflet that was distributed immediately after George Osborne's well-received speech.

1.40pm: Mr Osborne's plan to lift the inheritance tax threshold to £1m was announced this morning to rapturous applause from Conservative Party members.  This is "the death knell for death taxes," he declared.  It is the third big tax and spending policy announced by the Conservatives that grassroots activists will look forward to selling on the doorsteps.

We've also had the abolition of stamp duty for first-time buyers on all homes up to £250,000 in value.  There was also Saturday's promise to abolish the penalty that penalises 1.8 million two-parent families raising children.

None of these tax cut promises will be funded by the proceeds of growth, however.  They will be funded by a combination of savings from welfare budgets and from a new £25,000 once-a-year poll tax on  businesspeople classed as "non-domiciled" in the UK; non-doms.

Speaking on Radio 4's World at One, Oliver Letwin conceded that many of the savings would only be delivered progressively - over a number of years.  This could mean some delay in full delivery of the tax cut pledges.

8pm: This from Matthew Elliott at The TaxPayers' Alliance: "When taxpayers listen to George Osborne's speech on TV tonight, they'll be very pleased with what they hear. It contained some excellent announcements. The flat fee on non-doms makes the package add up, but before it's implemented in practice, I think the Conservatives should look very carefully at whether it could drive the entrepreneurs out of the country who are making London the world's financial centre and keeping our country afloat."

Damian Green proposes action against forced marriages

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green MP has today announced ideas to tackle forced immigration (he wrote for The Observer earlier today):

• That there should a prerequisite declaration of intention to marry abroad.
• That there should be a time requirement before those who have been previously married to a spouse from overseas are allowed to bring in another spouse from overseas.
• That potential spouses coming to the UK should take the ‘Life in the UK’ citizenship test.

Mr Green issued the following statement:

“The continuing existence of forced marriages in modern Britain is a stain on our social fabric. It is the extreme and unacceptable end of the clash of values between a plural democracy which values individual human rights and belief systems that regard women as second class citizens. Shockingly, forced marriages are not isolated events.

The Government’s Forced Marriage Unit does some good work but more effective action is needed. The Conservative Party has a number of proposals which we are putting out to consultation this week to minimise the incidence of forced marriage."

Action against forced marriage - as suggested by Louise Bagshawe - was one of the first policies to be approved as part of the 100policies.com process.

Nick Herbert responds to Law Commission's cohabitation proposals

The Law Commission today published a report proposing reform of the law affecting cohabiting couples property and finances when their relationship ends. The main thrust of the proposals is that couples without children who have been cohabiting for two years or more should be able to make a financial claim.

Nick Herbert, The Shadow Justice Secretary, has responded to the Law Commission's proposals saying:

"We will consider these proposals carefully.  However, they need to be tested against the key objectives of strengthening families and protecting children.  Our concern is that creating new rights for cohabitants in an attempt to ensure fairness - 'marriage lite' - could undermine the institution which gives children the most stability.

"It must be possible for couples without children to remain financially independent, if that is what they choose, without complicated and expensive legal arrangements.

"The proposals raise fundamental questions about the correct legal framework to govern families and people living together.  There needs to be a proper debate about these issues before the Government decides to introduce legislation."

Members divided on tax allowance for same sex couples

Only 564 members answered this question compared to the 1,417 who answered the questions highlighted earlier today.  The question was added to the survey a number of hours after the survey had gone live - following David Cameron's suggestion on Channel 4 News that any married couples' allowance would also benefit same sex couples who had entered civil partnerships.

37% of the respondents agreed with David Cameron that any allowance should benefit such same sex couples but 49% did not agree that gay couples should receive the allowance.  A further 10% of this population of 564 disagreed with any tax allowance for married or same sex couples.

Grassroots welcome IDS' recommendations with one notable exception...

Over the last four days 1,417 Tory members have given their opinions on twelve of the main recommendations of IDS' social justice report.  Ten of the twelve recommendations secured clear and supportive majorities.  The most popular recommendation - with 95% support - was action to eliminate unfairness to two-parent families within the benefits system.  The controversial proposal of higher taxation of alcohol was rejected by 59% of those surveyed.  The only other recommendation to fall short of a majority was the proposal to give the option of frontloading child benefit.  Although 49% agreed with the proposal, 30% disagreed.

ConservativeHome intends to poll members on the main recommendations of all of the policy groups.

Later today we will publish members' views on extending the married couples' tax allowance to gay couples.

The couple who are 'better off' living apart

If you want a real life example of how Gordon Brown's tax and benefits system is corrupting morality you need look no further than today's News of the World.  Reporter Philip Whiteside profiles the example of a couple that have chosen to split up because they are £878 a month better off as a result.  This is the problem that Iain Duncan Smith's social justice report was attempting to begin to address.  Read the full story here.

The Sunday Telegraph has a poll that shows a clear majority believing that it is right for Government to support marriage (57% to 35%) but a smaller majority in favour of using tax allowances to do so (49% to 44%).

Cameron supports tax breaks for same sex partnerships

David Cameron, just interviewed by Jon Snow for Channel 4 News, has said that any tax break for married couples that the Tories introduce will also benefit gay couples within civil partnerships.

C4's Cathy Newman reported that John Bercow and Tim Yeo are likely to lead any backbench opposition to the plan and that both Oliver Letwin and George Osborne have doubts about the cost of any tax breaks.  The danger for David Cameron of long delaying any announcement on tax breaks for marriage is that Bercow and others may begin to build a block of opposition to the idea.

In his interview Mr Cameron said that Iraq had been "a foreign policy disaster" but the Tories did not support an arbitrary timetable for withdrawal that would only give terrorist insurgents something to shoot at.

11pm: Tomorrow's Times is reporting that some in the shadow cabinet have doubts about the marriage policy although Cornerstone are strongly in support.

Big welcome from centre right press for IDS' report

The traditionally right-of-centre newspapers give a warm welcome this morning to yesterday's policy recommendations from Iain Duncan Smith.  Although there is some discussion of the breadth of the report, the main focus is on the promises to help families.

Daily Mail (not online): "For ten years, Gordon Brown has presided over a tax and benefits system that not only destroys incentives to work, but positively encourages parents to live apart, while penalising those who stay together.  Mr Cameron's determination to redress that balance not only makes good sense for Britain; it makes good politics for the Tories too.  If he has the sense to match properly costed policies to his brave words, he'll find he's on to a vote-winner."

Daily Telegraph: "The outcomes for children raised by two parents living together are far better than for those raised by single parents, and couples are far more likely to remain together if they are married rather than cohabiting... This is clearly a sphere in which Mr Cameron feels comfortable and to which he can bring sincere personal conviction. It may well be his key to a successful opposition strategy."

The Sun (not online): "For the first-time, the Tories have carved out vote-winning territory beyond the reach of New Labour.  They promise to use the tax and welfare system to reward marriage... A stable and happy marriage offers the best family environment for children... Now - instead of suggesting we pay more for our booze, museums and cheap flights - the Tories are backing marriage.  And that has to be a good thing."

Daily Express (not online): "David Cameron is right to set a political course that encompasses tax breaks for married parents.  Marriage should be encouraged because children thrive when they grow up in stable, two-parent families.  Labour's welfare state tinkering has led to parents lower down the income scale being much better off if they split up.  That cannot be right."

Leaders in The Guardian and Independent are critical of the marriage recommendations although The Independent is impressed with much of the report: "This voluminous report is for the most part admirably free of preconceptions, and contains ideas that would deserve consideration by a government of any complexion."

David Cameron writes for the Mail about his commitment to marriage.

188 policy ideas to tackle poverty

Just returned from the press conference at which Iain Duncan Smith and his team of policy advisers presented the Breakthrough Britain report.  You can access a full copy here.  Perhaps inevitably the journalists' questions focused on the proposal for a tax break for married couples.  My guess is that this one recommendation will dominate the rest of the day's news cycle.  Here are my own contextual thoughts:

• The financial support for married and two parent couples is important because there are currently penalties for couples who live together and get married.  These penalties may not affect the lifestyle decisions of comfortably-off people but they matter when you are struggling to make ends meet.  We should not only look at these issues through middle class eyes.
• Breakthrough Britain does not pretend that a tax allowance alone will repair marriage.  Unlike previous Tory policies on families there are many other pro-family proposals including recommendations to review family law, provide couples with relationship education, Frank Field's option of frontloading child benefit, more help for carers and Cabinet-level representation for the family.
• The family breakdown section of the report is just one of six sections.  Breakthrough Britain is clear that we won't tackle poverty unless we also tackle the problems of addiction, indebtedness, worklessness and educational failure.  The sixth section focuses on the voluntary and charitable sector and its role in building 'the nation of the second chance'.
• Some of the best policies in the report are, for me: extension of the right-to-buy, simplification of child benefit, requirements for lone parents to be available for undertake 20 hours of work when their youngest child reaches five, payment of welfare-to-work providers according to results-based contracts, premium pay for inner city teachers, 'Pioneer Schools' free of LEA control and based on the US charter schools model and with funding voucherised, stricter classification of cannabis, a move towards abstinence-based drug rehab, measures to strengthen credit unions, greater funding of debt advice services, financial education for 14-year-olds, simplification of Gift Aid, a V-card reward scheme for young volunteers, the piloting of Community Growth Trusts (of which more soon) and fairer treatment of faith-based organisations.

In total there are 188 policy recommendations.  If you want to read them all please download this pdf.

Iain Duncan Smith set out the big picture ideas behind his report on YourPlatform earlier today.

Iain Duncan Smith's social justice report is published tomorrow

There wasn't much detail on tonight's Ten'o'clock BBC1 news bulletin but Nick Robinson accompanied Iain Duncan Smith to Glasgow and met some of the people who have inspired the former Tory leader to pursue his commitment to find new ways to defeat poverty.

The BBC's Political Editor reported that Iain Duncan Smith had been on a years-long crusade to convert his party to the cause of social justice and with tomorrow's publication of the heavily-trailed final report that crusade now expands to the whole nation.

IDS is first filmed with Janis Dobbie (above) who has lost two sons to drugs.  A key component of the Social Justice Policy Group's report is a major increase in funding for drug rehabilitation and a movement away from methadone-type programmes that maintain people in forms of prescription dependency and towards real programmes that provide freedom from addiction.  Prescription programmes currently receive ten times as much funding in total as freedom programmes.  IDS also wants a tighter classification of cannabis given the links between stronger forms of this drug and mental illness.

Iain is filmed above with Janis and Jim Doherty of the Gallowgate Family Support Group.  The Group is one of the small community-based projects that the voluntary sector chapter of the report is designed to help.  The SJPG aims to 'trustmark' the best community groups with a new level of recognition that will attract higher levels of private and public sector grants.  The report also suggests more use of matched funding so that the crucial decisions about which charities receive public money are increasingly made by local people rather than remote bureaucrats.

Nick Robinson's report concluded with a preview of tomorrow's announcement that IDS will recommend a £6bn package of support for marriage and two parent families. Half of which will go towards a new tax allowance for married couples and half of which will go to eliminate the benefits penalty that couples have to face compared with single parents.

Many middle class observers sneer that they would never get married or stay married for a tax perk.  That ignores the reality of 'life at the bottom'.  Many couples struggle to make ends meet and Gordon Brown's tax and benefits system makes it economically advantageous for many low income parents to live apart or at least pretend to live apart.

My own hope is that there isn't too great a media focus on the tax allowance.  The SJPG will also recommend new forms of counselling and practical support for couples starting their life together.  This practical mentoring and other measures to help families with dependent relatives, and those who are struggling with debt, are also essential ingredients of a comprehensive anti-poverty programme.

Speaking to Nick Robinson, IDS said that poverty could not be beaten by concentrating on any one of today's five giants of poverty.  All five evils - family breakdown, severe indebtedness, addiction, educational failure and worklessness - all had to be tackled together.

ConservativeHome will be at tomorrow's 10.30am unveiling of the 200 policy recommendations and IDS will be writing exclusively for this site about the philosophical underpinnings of his analysis.  David Cameron will be speaking tomorrow afternoon at a London community project about his own first reaction to the former Tory leader's report.

Will Brown choose Harman or Dacre in the great marriage debate?

The Tory-Mail relationship hasn't been great of late so there'll have been a few smiles within Team Cameron at this morning's Daily Mail front page splash...

The Mail's enthusiasm for Iain Duncan Smith's likely recommendation that action is taken to reduce the disincentives to marry within the tax and benefits system will be a test for Gordon Brown.  Our new Prime Minister has courted The Sun and Mail ever since he set his eyes on Number Ten.  He will be concerned that he may lose Paul Dacre if he goes too hard against the Tory marriage policy although Harriet Harman et al will be pressing him very hard to do so.

This is how today's Mail leader column concludes:

"Duncan Smith's report is a welcome challenge to political correctness. Though some of his proposals may prove contentious - for example, swingeing taxes on alcohol to fund treatments for drug addicts - his case for strengthening family structures is compelling.  As David Cameron says, mending Britain's 'broken society' is the biggest issue of our times. It will be instructive to see how other parties respond."

Ms Harman's political correctness means she despises any hint that one form of family structure is usually better for children than any other.  That political correctness forces her and her ideological Labour colleagues to ignore the evidence that poverty is almost certainly unbeatable if public policy does not support two parents and marriage.

David Cameron on social mobility (but not on Europe)

David Cameron was interviewed on the Today programme at just after 7.30am this morning as part of a series of features that John Humphrys is presenting on declining social mobility.  Peter Lampl of the Sutton Trust (who wrote for yesterday's Sunday Times) told the programme that Britain had both inequality of opportunity and widening inequality of outcome.  He highlighted research that suggests that the expansion of educational opportunity has disproportionately benefited the already better-off.  Last week David Cameron put David Davis in charge of an inquiry into social mobility (a subject the Shadow Home Secretary addressed at the start of the year).

David Cameron said that there were three main drivers of social mobility:

• Strong and stable family life;
• Good parenting and other care in the first three years of life; and
• Educational opportunity.

The Conservative leader said one of the three difficult but vital changes he had made to the party in the last eighteen months was ensuring that education policy focused on the many and not the few.  The other two vital changes were putting economic stability before promises of up-front tax cuts and stopping opt outs from the NHS (the scrapping of the Patient Passports policy).  Conservatives wanted, David Cameron said, to ensure high quality healthcare for everyone and the public now trusted the Tories more than Labour on the NHS.

He said that he would be willing to work with Gordon Brown on addressing social immobility in the same way that he had had regular talks with Tony Blair and had supported aspects of Labour's education reforms.  Promising to be relentlessly positive, he said that he was confident that voters would see Conservatives as representing the real change at the next General Election.  Gordon Brown was associated with all of the waste and failure of the last decade and could not present himself as the changemaker.

Editor's comment: "David Cameron was persuasive in his answers to questions about social mobility but he missed an opportunity to raise the issue of Europe in the second half of the interview.  As Bertie Ahern made clear yesterday - in saying that the Irish would have a referendum - 90% of the Constitution rejected by the Dutch and French, and upon which we were promised a referendum by Brown'n'Blair - is in the new draft Treaty.  William Hague is doing a good job in highlighting this and other facts but it will take interventions from David Cameron (as recommended on Saturday) to move calls for a referendum up the news agenda.  These calls - not just in the Commons but on multiple media platforms - should blight Brown's wish for a honeymoon."

Cameron launches quality of childhood inquiry

David Cameron launched a quality of childhood review in Trafford today which will look specifically at the three areas of "subjective well-being", "behaviours & risks", and "family & peer relationships" - the categories in which UK children had the worst ratings in the recent UNICEF report.

The report was criticised for measuring poverty relatively, but it did highlight worrying levels of unhappiness amongst our children.

In particular, this review will focus on these important issues:

• Extended families - have we raised barriers to a broader-based family life?
• Fathers and sons - are there particular problems affecting boys?
• Advertising to children - how can society protect children better form commercialisation of childhood?
• Play and space - are children growing up in a flat world, with insufficient space and time to play and explore the world for themselves unsupervised?
• Stranger danger - have we allowed fears of strangers to obstruct normal contacts between adults and children putting too much pressure on parents and schools?

The review will be chaired by the cerebral David Willetts MP who will publish its findings later this year. Two authors critical of contemporary lifestyle - Sue Palmer ("Toxic Childhood") and Tim Gill ("No Fear: Growing up in a risk-averse society") - are amongst his distinguished panel of advisers.

Deputy Editor

Tory family policy must communicate compassion for lone parents

Yesterday ConservativeHome noted how Tory members were underwhelmed by the party leadership's plans for green taxation of air travel.  Today we report the membership's enthusiasm for David Cameron's family agenda.

The graphic on the right summarises the reaction of members to six statements on family policy.  There is overwhelming support for the suggestion that family breakdown is a leading cause of the social problems beginning to engulf certain sections of urban Britain. 
David Cameron's pledge to introduce a tax allowance for married couples wins the support of 72% of respondents.  3% more back the tax allowance alongside a wider package of pro-family policy ideas.  Politically I think it is very important for the Conservative Party to present a broadly-based family policy that - while including tax fairness for married couples and two parent families - offers compassionate support for other families, too.  Ideas on healthcare and schooling, for example, need to be part of the Tory family agenda so that lone mums do not feel forgotten.  Liam Fox's ideas on special help for servicemen's families could also be highlighted in a Tory family policy manifesto.

Approximately a quarter of members offered support for two laissez-faire statements.  28% thought government had no business in how people organise their family life and 16% wanted the party to eschew traditional family values in favour of personal liberty.

Cameron's perfect putdown to Mundell

"People send me all sorts of interesting advice about Scotland - although, frankly, sometimes it would perhaps be best if they kept it to themselves."

That remark was delivered by the Tory leader to today's Scottish Party Conference - following on from all of the bad publicity created by David Mundell's leaked memo.

Mr Cameron also used his speech to re-emphasise his commitment to marriage and the very different position of the Chancellor of the Exchequer:

"Earlier this week, Gordon Brown put himself on the wrong side of this vital debate.  We know that his policies have penalised marriage.  Thanks to his tax and benefit rules, many couples with children are better off if they split up.  Instead of recognising this mistake, and pledging to do something about it, he's simply compounded it.  He put himself on the side of the old-fashioned anything-goes individualism that's all about me-me-me.  What children need in the fast-changing modern world is the strength, the stability, the confidence that comes from a loving home with two parents caring for them.  I will never be frightened of saying these things."

Cameron's not for turning on the family

Gordon Brown will today follow Alan Johnson's lead of last week and challenge David Cameron's commitment to marriage and the family.  The Chancellor will insist that government policy on the family should not be based on "ideological judgments".  That, of course, is a deliberate misrepresentation of Tory policy.  As David Cameron made clear on Sunday, Tory policy is empirical rather than ideological.  It is based on the overwhelming body of evidence that points to the benefits of two parent families and the stability of marriage over cohabitation.  It is Labour's laissez-faire policy on the family that is doctrinaire.

Those who expect David Cameron to backtrack on his commitment to family policy are going to be disappointed...

1. He has long been a supporter of stronger families and launched his 2005 leadership bid with a pledge to support marriage in the tax system.
2. He is persuaded by the evidence that many of Britain's deep social problems are rooted in the problems of unstable home backgrounds.  His advisers were very impressed by the evidence on family life put together by Dr Samantha Callan (pictured), who runs the family policy group of Iain Duncan Smith's social justice task force.
3. He knows that the social conservatives in the parliamentary party and critically important newspapers like the Daily Mail regard this policy agenda as vitally important.
4. The party's internal focus groups have suggested that voters do not know if David Cameron has 'inner steel.'  Many floating voters apparently worry that David Cameron will say anything to get elected and doesn't have core beliefs that he is willing to fight for.  The commitment to the family - unpopular with many metropolitan commentators and Tory modernisers like Oliver Letwin - sends a strong signal that David Cameron does have core convictions.

Cameron puts renewal of the family at the heart of his Conservatism

Here are some key themes from David Cameron's speech to Welsh Tories later today where he will focus on the role of the family in fighting crime, reducing poverty and improving the quality of life:

• Britons are tired of living in a nation that is "economically rich but socially poor".
• "This is not about saying that single parents do a bad job.  They do the hardest job in the world. It is simply saying that kids do best when mum and dad are both there for them.  And we should not ignore that one compelling fact.  Nearly one in two cohabiting parents split up before their child's fifth birthday, compared to one in 12 married parents.  That is why we support marriage."
• He will acknowledge that culture will play at least as important a role as government policies such as tax breaks: "In particular we need to create the right social pressures, applying the full force of shame to fathers who run away from their responsibilities."
• "Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who opposed everything Margaret Thatcher did in the 1980s, now admit they were wrong... You know and I know and everyone out there knows that the big argument in British politics today is about our society.  Because it's not economic breakdown that Britain faces today, but social breakdown.  I think it's time we recognised that family breakdown is the central factor in the social breakdown we see in our country today."

Editor's comment: "This is a bold and unambiguous commitment by the Tory leader to the central role of marriage and the family in defeating our nation's social challenges.  It is very welcome.  When Iain Duncan Smith's social justice policy group makes its recommendations on family policy David Cameron will have the policy tools to deliver the family-friendly government that he seems determined to lead."

12.45pm update: The Sunday Times is reporting that there is internal resistance to the emphasis on marriage: "Despite the lead set by Duncan Smith and Cameron, insiders say Oliver Letwin, Cameron’s policy chief and mentor, is fearful that “banging on” about marriage will undermine the campaign to show the Conservative party has changed... Privately Francis Maude, the party chairman, is said to share Letwin’s concerns. However, both Cameron and his chief adviser, Steve Hilton, are convinced that pushing marriage is the right thing."

Labour's hypocrisy on the family

There's an excellent letter in today's Times from Harry Benson which neatly rebuts Alan Johnson's attack on David Cameron for the Conservative leader's support for marriage:

"[Alan Johnson's] non-argument — that not all marriages are brilliant and not all other family arrangements are doomed — is obviously true, in the same way that not all smokers die of cancer."

Spot on, Harry.  Some people who smoke live to a ripe old age and some single parents succeed against the odds but you make it harder for yourself if you choose to smoke or if you end up as a lone parent.  Harry Benson is one of the great battlers for the family in Britain today.  His work in Bristol with engaged couples and with the families of prisoners is award-winning and sacrificial.  Another hero of the pro-family movement is Jill Kirby.  Her work at the Centre for Policy Studies has laid many of the foundations for the pro-marriage position that the Conservative Party has adopted.  Jill Kirby has written for today's Daily Express - defending David Cameron from Alan Johnson's attacks. 

Jill uses her article to rebut the idea that tax incentives for marriage don't matter (and we're back on the subject of tobacco!):

"Alan Johnson, like many of his colleagues, says that people won’t be more likely to marry just because there is a tax break available. But he belongs to a Government that uses tax incentives to alter people’s behaviour in almost every other area of life. Tax is kept lower on unleaded fuel to make motorists choose environmentally friendly petrol. Hefty duties on cigarettes are meant to deter us from smoking. So why does the Government think that people will ignore the financial implications of getting married? A few thousand pounds a year could make all the difference, especially on a low income."

And the fact is - as Jill Kirby continues - the current tax system is unfair to married couples:

"Brown claimed that his tax credit system would provide incentives for work and get children out of poverty.  But the credits are structured in such a way that they provide the biggest income top-ups to lone mothers who are either unemployed or working part-time. If those mothers get married or even move in with their boyfriends, their credits will be heavily cut. Tax credits paid to couples do not recognise the needs of the second adult, and so couples bringing up children on a low wage will be much more likely to be left in poverty by the system than lone parents. A man with a wife and young children will have to work much longer hours than a lone parent to reach a similar standard of living. All this means that poorer couples, for whom income top-ups are important, do much better by keeping their relationship “unofficial.”  Getting married means that you can’t keep your relationship under wraps, so married couples get the worst deal of all."

A lot of the debate about marriage and the tax-and-benefits system is very ill-informed.  There is a debate to be had about whether marriage should enjoy financial benefits but that debate is for the future.  Today's debate should be about the hefty penalties that fall on the shoulders of married couples.

Social justice depends upon supporting fatherhood and marriage

Sam Coates and I spoke too soon.  On Thursday night's edition of ConservativeHome TV (watch it here) we welcomed the fact that Labour had not attacked David Cameron's emphasis on the family.  We hoped that - finally - Labour was willing to accept the overwhelming evidence that most children do better when a mother and father are active in their lives. On top of that there is also the fact that mother-father involvement is more likely to be reliable if the couple are married.  David Cameron has had the courage to embrace Iain Duncan Smith's evidence on marriage and Labour's silent response appeared to suggest that - in their hearts - the Government knew that family breakdown was a root cause of underachievement, crime and incivility.

The front page of today's Observer suggests that Labour are about to return to their old ways.  And they are old ways.  Alan Johnson is apparently going to warn that family policy should not be based on 'the prejudices of yesterday's generation' but he is the one with throwback views.  Saying that marriage and fatherhood didn't matter was plausible in the 1960s but the evidence has now poured in and that evidence says that marriage and fatherhood are among the most important weapons we have in building social justice.

The only thing that can be said for Labour's Woodstock warriors is that they are still capable of a good soundbite.  Harriet Harman tells the Observer that Cameron's arguments amount to 'Back to Basics in an open-necked shirt.'  Nice line from Labour's wannabe Deputy Leader but a terrible disservice to Mr Cameron's arguments and to her Peckham constituents.  If she really cared about them she'd be arguing for policies that would encourage more active parenting and the institution of marriage.  Unfortunately a pro-fatherhood, pro-marriage consensus will have to wait until the Labour left cease the party politics.

Labour like to think of themselves as the party of social justice.  They need to understand that you cannot be the party of social justice and be opposed to the family.