‘Social responsibility’ is a bad name for a good idea: Cameron is truly on to something this time

How much does a hamburger really cost? Within this question, as one of David Cameron’s senior advisers explained to me, lies the Conservatives’ new driving philosophy. A Big Mac costs £1.99. But if children guzzle too many they become obese and inflict a burden on the National Health Service. The taxpayer funds this treatment — so the burger costs more than the child’s family originally pays. Might a responsible Tory government ensure the child pays what the burger truly costs?

In an underground auditorium on the Strand on Monday, Mr Cameron convened a one-day conference to discuss such issues. Speakers were lined up and copies of a book of his speeches were piled up outside. The purpose of the gathering was to promote and discuss what he declared is ‘the big idea for the Conservative party in this decade and succeeding decades’. He calls that idea, as he did at last year’s Tory conference, ‘social responsibility’.