The Tories and the champagne socialist

Last updated at 08:21 25 November 2006


This has been an extraordinary week for the Tory party: one that dismayed Conservative traditionalists over the way David Cameron is putting the 'moral disgrace' of poverty at the heart of his political agenda.

To many, it seems surreal that he apparently endorses the policies of that, frankly, second-rate Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, who zealously promotes high tax, high-spending statism.

After all, her views contradict decades of Tory thinking. Churchill believed in a safety net to protect the poor. Thatcher gave them a ladder of opportunity through the sale of council houses, wider share ownership and lower taxes.

Neither would have dreamed of seeking inspiration from a champagne socialist who oozes hatred for the middle classes and pays expensively for her child's schooling while denouncing selection for everyone else.

So what on earth is Mr Cameron up to?

The answer, of course, is that this is part of a carefully thought through - some would say cynical - strategy to change his party's image.

Mr Cameron is obsessed by the belief that voters still hate the Tories for their 'nastiness'. By citing Ms Toynbee, he ensured widespread and sympathetic publicity in the Guardian and on the BBC in advance of his speech yesterday.

Where he does deserve credit is in identifying a glaring Labour weakness: the gap between rich and poor has grown worse in its ten years of governance.

The moral case for helping the 20 per cent of our fellow citizens stuck on the lowest rung of the economic ladder is surely unanswerable, especially in a party that has always sought to promote One Nation.

But whether Mr Cameron offers coherent solutions is another matter.

Yes, his analysis is in many respects spot on. Mr Cameron is right to say 'the large, clunking mechanisms of the state' are failing and that complicated tax credits aren't working. He is right to stress the importance of the family, He is also right to warn young people against falling into debt (though people of sensibility will cringe at his party's crass publicity campaign on this issue, featuring a character called 'the Tosser').

But what are his solutions to the problem of poverty?

He attacks tax credits, but doesn't say what he would do instead. He supports marriage and the family, but shies away from tax breaks for couples with children. He rightly thinks social dislocation must be tackled by society as a whole but doesn't spell out how.

And welfare dependency? There are 4.3million people in this country on unemployment, incapacity or lone parent benefit, while half a million immigrants find jobs without difficulty.

In America, the policy of 'tough love', involving a carrot-and-stick benefits system, has weaned millions off welfare dependency and into work. Isn't that the way to break the cycle of despair that blights so much of Britain?

In his first year, Mr Cameron brought a breath of fresh air to Tory politics. However much his PR gimmickry irritates core Conservatives, he is starting to make his party look electable. For that he deserves huge credit.

But while Mr Cameron is proving a PR success, isn't it now time for him to produce some solid, costed policies?

He would also do well to remember that Lady Thatcher - by freeing millions of working class people from dead-end council estates run by corrupt Labour apparatchiks and turning dying nationalised industries into vibrant businesses - did more for the poor than the Polly Toynbees of this world ever will.

Most watched News videos