The facts of life are Conservative, as the old phrase has it. The events of the past few
days have shown the urgent need for Tory social policies. The case for reforms to the police, welfare and education has been amply demonstrated.
Some in the government appear to get this. But there is also an odd hesitancy about getting on the front foot. As Tim Montgomerie said yesterday, why wasn’t a minister put up for Question Time last night? They could have used the programme to push Cameron’s reform agenda. Equally, why isn’t Cameron setting up an inquiry that will expose how the police have effectively abandoned parts of our big cities and show how a combination of family breakdown, a lack of discipline in schools and the perverse incentives of the welfare system have frayed the social fabric? Cameron’s failure to do this is allowing Ed Miliband, who turned in an impressive performance on the Today Programme this morning, to boast that he’ll set one up if Cameron won’t.
Cameron has a remarkable opportunity to move this country to the right, to apply Conservative solutions to problems that have built up over generations. He also has a large number of the necessary policies to hand. But these policies have to be implemented: it is no good knowing what needs to be done if you don’t actually do it. The internal and bureaucratic obstacles to reform must be overcome.
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