Earlier this week Iain Duncan Smith was given the social justice prize at the ConservativeHome awards. He received an overwhelming majority of votes from the ConservativeHome readers who decided the prizewinners. It is also good to see that people outside of the Conservative Party are now giving Iain the recognition that he deserves. Today’s Times […]
A report by Iain Duncan Smith’s Social Justice Policy Group has revealed that white working class boys are performing least well at school: "They do markedly worse than other groups from similarly poor backgrounds, scoring only a quarter of the exam passes of teenagers of Chinese origin and fewer than half the exam passes of […]
Extracts from Mitchell’s speech to the Street Child Africa Schools Conference: SUPPORTING THE GOVERNMENT "Support for the British contribution to international development is not a Labour or Conservative policy, but a British commitment. So I am proud to say that I support the government in much of what it does to increase aid to developing […]
A couple of weeks ago ConservativeHome noted David Miliband’s unimpressive attempt to mount an intellectual attack on ‘Cameronism’. Antonia Cox was also underwhelmed on Monday’s Platform. Oliver Letwin, Tory policy chief, has responded to Mr Miliband’s critique in this week’s Spectator. First of all, Mr Letwin defends the force of the whole idea of social […]
MPs don’t get much respect these days. So it’s good to see their work with charities recognised in the ePolitix.com Charity Champion Awards. It’s also good to see Conservative MPs nominated in so many categories – thereby challenging a few stereotypes. Among the Conservative nominations this year are Greg Clark (nominated by the Association of […]
A report from the Conservative Party’s Social Justice Policy Group lists no fewer than four hundred different scientific studies that point to the links between cannabis and various forms of mental illness and destructive behaviour. According to a report in The Daily Mail the report highlights the fact that "heavy cannabis users make up the […]
Last night saw the formal launch at Policy Exchange of "Compassionate Conservatism: What It Is, Why We Need It" by Jesse Norman and Janan Ganesh. As Conservative Home regulars will know from our advance coverage on Your Platform this presents a vision of the "connected society" of renewed institutions outside the state as a foundation […]
The Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, Ben Rogers, was in the Maldives last week and has issued a detailed report of the situation there. The Commission was launched last year and has already done some good work – it recently had a hearing on Burma and is soon to be holding […]
The last few days have seen a flurry of stories about the BNP: In last week’s Spectator – in an article entitled The Scream of the Forgotten Voter – Peter Oborne went canvassing with the BNP in Dagenham and the local Labour MP told him that the extremist party could pick up six council seats. […]
Just before Christmas Oliver Letwin’s remarks on redistribution were ‘flamed’ by ConservativeHomers (or should that be ConservativeHomies?). I fear target-sceptics may react similarly to today’s Oliver Letwin article in The Guardian that "David Cameron’s Conservatives" "are committed to the government target of ending child poverty by 2020". A CCHQ insider tells me that the pledge […]
Delegates at the Manchester Spring Forum were treated to barnstorming speeches from the two best platform speakers in Britain today: William Hague and Michael Heseltine. Describing himself as the Conservative Party’s "youngest old-timer" William Hague said that there were three main reasons for his optimism about Tory prospects: His change message is consistent with the […]
I’m sat at the back of the Manchester Intl Convention Centre watching a truly inspirational presentation by four community workers. David Cameron, chat show style, has introduced each of their stories. Again and again the stories are showing that government bureaucracy and short-term funding patterns frustrate the work of social entrepreneurs. ‘What works’ in overcoming […]
Many Conservatives anxious to put clear blue water between us and Labour think of lower tax as one policy option that Gordon Brown will never embrace. Support for marriage is another such policy option and indifference to the family is a leading reason why Labour is failing in its social exclusion agenda. A new report […]
Today is Budget day and on the ConservativeHome frontpage there are links to… a Populus poll on attitudes to Gordon Brown… an excellent essay on Gordon Brown by The Telegraph’s Jeff Randall and… some insights into Labour’s not-so-green record on environmental taxation. It’s day three of ConservativeHome’s ‘Wake up to Gordon Brown week’ and today’s […]
Earlier this week ConservativeHome attempted to define social justice and in response to a posting by John Hayes MP there was a lot of visitor concern that the Tories might be embracing out-of-date perspectives in its use of the social justice term. Perhaps the best way of understanding the idea of social justice is to […]