With the 10p tax debacle, New Labour surrendered any right that it might have had to call itself the party of social justice. The results of the local elections showed that voters feel that Labour have squandered the trust and faith placed in them. The Conservative Party must fill this void to become the Party of social justice, opportunity and hope for all Britons.
Labour’s record stands as a litany of failure to help the poorest in society. The 10p tax disgrace; the worsening of relative poverty and the growing gap between rich and poor; the dramatic diminution of social mobility; the failure of too many schools in the inner cities; and the violent crime that always hits the poorest the hardest are all symbolic of New Labour’s grotesque failure to create social justice. This goes beyond political point scoring. It is a terrible human tragedy. A waste of a decade. This failure has created a lost generation of talent. New Labour has betrayed the trust placed in it by the most vulnerable in society. As progressive Conservatives we must not let them get away with it. As progressive Conservatives we must ensure that the trust of the vulnerable is never betrayed in such a callous way again.
As a very proud product of a North Eastern working class family and a North Eastern comprehensive, I have witnessed at first hand the descent from hope to betrayal of New Labour’s promise to the poorest in society. Poverty of aspiration still haunts many working class communities. People in poorer areas have relatively worse access to health care and the gap between the education of the poorest and the wealthiest has grown rather than diminished in the past ten years. For all New Labour’s fine words, to be born poor now is more detrimental to your overall life chances than at any time since the Second World War. For so many economic and social reasons, this is a situation we cannot allow to continue.
David Cameron is right to place social justice as one of the central pillars of his Conservative Party. Already, we have developed policies in education and welfare explicitly aimed at improving the life chances of the poorest in society. Once again, the Conservative Party is living up to the Disraelian motto that “elevating the condition of the people” should be a primary goal of a Conservative Government. We now realise that there is no need for a dogmatic choice between dirigisme and the unfettered free market. Nor do we accept New Labour’s outdated idea that only state action can bring about social progress. This is not political opportunism. Instead, this comes from a genuine Conservative belief that all in society deserve the opportunity to succeed and fulfil their potential. A progressive Conservative society will be a society in which the talent of each individual is harnessed and given the opportunity to blossom.
Labour’s top down, bureaucratic approach has failed and has created a trail of human tragedy in its wake. The expectation amongst the poorest that greeted their election in 1997 has dissipated to disillusionment, alienation and despair. We must make the case loudly that social justice is a real Conservative priority. We need to tackle head on the nay sayers and make the case that Conservative means can result in the achievement of progressive goals. New Labour’s failure means that we must take up the mantle of social justice. We must become a beacon of hope for the most vulnerable in society and we must not, and will not, betray the trust they have placed in us. The Conservative Party can become, will become, and for the sake of those who have suffered the most from New Labour’s betrayal of trust, must become the Party of real social justice in the United Kingdom.
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