Britain needs a dose of One Nation Toryism

The economic crisis has predominated political headlines in this country for most of the last eighteen months. The next General Election will be fought on economic issues. The part that can most convince the British people it is the best party to sort out our economic mess will be victors in May. What has not been in the news and what will not be the subject of key-note speeches from the party leaders in May is the breakdown in society we are experiencing in Britain today.

To halt this breakdown in the social fabric of the United Kingdom, Britain desperately needs a dose of One Nation Conservatism. Liberal, compassionate, caring conservatism that kick starts the social revival Britain is craving for. This is what David Cameron must offer the British people at the next election because it is the right thing to do.

Unlike some in the Conservative Party, I do not hold some romantic hopes for a Thatcherite revival in Britain after the next election. Indeed I think the last thing Britain needs is a dose of the Iron Lady's medicine. Margaret Thatcher was a fantastic Prime Minister, one of our best. But she was a women of her time. She could only ever have been elected as a Conservative at that time with those set of circumstances. Thatcherism revived the British economy and raised it to great strength. But its complete failure to take account of Britain's social needs as well as its economic needs has meant that Thatcher herself must take some of the blame for our broken society. Thatcherism is always defined in economic terms, nobody can ever really come up with a definition of what Thatcherite Social Policy ever was; that's because Thatcher never really had a social policy. What little social policy she did have largely manifested itself in her cruel vilification of the homosexual community.

But the social challenge facing us today is comparable to the economic challenge facing Thatcher in 1979. That is why Britain needs a One Nation Conservative government that will repair the damage of the last thirty years. Disraeli's observations of a society of 'two nations' in his novel Cybil ring true today. Under Labour, the rich have gotten richer whilst the poor have gotten poorer, Labour has built fewer council houses than the Conservatives did under Thatcher, Britain is now a country devoid of social mobility and we have nearly 20% of 18-24 year olds unemployed. All of this under a government that supposedly cares. A One Nation government, spurred on by the likes of Disraeli and Macmillan, reconciled to the welfare state and Labour's achievements such as the minimum wage, should carry on the great Conservative tradition of social reform after the next election.

If David Cameron does win the next election, as I certainly hope he will, he will have to deal with the nation's finances. But he must do that with regard for the wider ramifications of his actions for society. The Conservatives must not ignore Britain's social needs as they did the last time they were in government; they must realise them and address them. David Cameron will then become the social reformer he so evidently wants to be.