If Labour is to beat Cameron, Brown must forge a new tax contract with the voters

Is David Cameron feeling his way to a winning political narrative? In a number of recent speeches he has begun to spell out a new debate about the size of the state. It is definitively post-Thatcherite. The battle lines are not the traditional ones of cutting public provision and leaving the private sector to fill the gaps. Cameron is instead seeking ways of offering collective provision which is not run and dominated by a central state.

The public appears cautiously interested. But, given the weakness of those bodies that once provided collective provision, say in welfare — poleaxed by good old Mr Attlee — provision of collective services by voluntary bodies sounds good, but is unlikely to provide any major innovations that voters would notice.

At this point, step forward Gordon Brown. He is arraigned for dithering, also for being an unreconstructed Stalinist and, perhaps worst of all, bereft of new ideas. To challenge David Cameron’s emerging narrative, the PM must set out his own radical stall quickly and decisively. The post-Thatcher question that needs to be asked is, ‘How can individual freedom be extended while at the same time protecting that degree of public provision which voters believe necessary for a civilised life?’

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The great advantage the Prime Minister has over his Tory opponent is that he can begin the personalised revolution in public services before voters go to the polls, whereas the leader of the opposition can only issue yet more press releases. Here are three examples of the new politics which could be in full swing by the next election.

Example one is to allow individuals a say on when they draw on parts of their social security entitlements. As only a minority of the population at any one time will be responsible for raising the next generation, successive governments decided that the cost of raising children should be in part spread over the whole community.