Only four years ago social justice was banned from the Tory lexicon. I’d drafted a speech for a member of the shadow cabinet but the one use of the term was struck out in red ink. “This is not a Conservative idea. Conservatives don’t believe in social justice” had been scrawled in the margin.
Fortunately we have moved beyond that. One nation commitments are now seen as one vital half of the ‘economic prosperity and social justice’ pairing.
Although Labour prides itself as the party of social justice, many of Britain’s social problems aren’t getting better, even though the economy has been strong. David Willetts has pointed to "fragile families", "some of the toughest estates", "the most drunken tourists" and "some of the worst problems of crime and drug abuse" as evidence of Britain being the “sick society of Europe”.
The persistence of these problems – despite Gordon Brown’s bloated welfare state – presents Conservatives with a practical challenge and a political opportunity.
The practical challenge is to find the policies that will secure social justice. Labour have tried pulling the old Whitehall levers but without much success. Social progress is going to depend upon different approaches. For example, Conservatives should embrace policies that…
> give young people escape routes from the conveyor belt to crime,
> cut taxes for low income workers,
> provide parents with school choice,
> promote stakeholder-directed funding of free, innovative and effective charities, and
> in a challenge to the Tories' Soho tendency we must nurture family networks.
A Tory social justice agenda must be aspirational – in that it helps people to help themselves – but, at times, it must be simply and unconditionally compassionate – helping those very vulnerable people who cannot help themselves.
The political opportunity was illustrated by a YouGov poll for the Centre for Social Justice. YouGov found that 70% of target voters were more likely to vote Conservative if the party embraced policies that were “fair to those in need of help and fair to those who provide help”. What are we waiting for?
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