Broken Britain: The Reality

I was hugely impressed by a long article by my former colleague Rob Yates, in this weekend’s Observer magazine. Rob went back to his roots in Walton, Liverpool, one of the most deprived parts of the country on any indicator, to examine the reality of the “broken Britain” rhetoric of the Conservative Party.

It was about as far from a liberal whinge as you can imagine, but Rob recognised that not everything New Labour has done to alleviate the lot of the worst off has been disastrous. In particular he points to the popularity of the Sure Start programme for mothers and young children and improvements to school buildings and municipal space in general.

I have a terrible worry that in its eagerness to sweep away the perceived waste of the Brown era, the Tories will throw the baby out with the bath water. The promise of the Cameroon philosophy was that it would recognise the good things done by the Labour government.