Cameron comes out fighting

David Cameron sounded the right note in his back-to-school interview on the Today programme this morning. As Fraser has so consistently called upon him to do, the Tory leader put the “broken society” at the heart of his autumn campaign, while refusing the invitation of Jim Naughtie to endorse knee-jerk crackdowns on the drinking age. The only way to stop “Anarchy in the UK” is to “strengthen families and communities in the UK”: that’s spot on. Gordon Brown doesn’t buy the “broken society” analysis, so Mr Cameron has this terrain pretty much to himself. On tax, he made clear where his sympathies lie – “this is a conservative party” – while refusing to budge from his (electorally essential) mantra that stability (ie mortgage rates) must come first. Economists can argue all they like about the relationship between tax cuts and monetary stability, but the public has, for now, made up its mind: it does not want a Conservative Party that puts upfront tax cuts ahead of everything else. That said, there is plenty of room for manoeuvre in penalising some forms of behaviour (such as gas-guzzling cars) and rewarding others (such as couples who want to form a stable home in which to raise their children): and George Osborne’s piece in yesterday’s Mail on Sunday set out a clear case for phasing out death duties. Fiscal neutrality does not mean moral neutrality. This was a strong performance by a politician who always does best in adverse conditions. Meanwhile, there is a terrific series of contributions running on conservativehome.com during the day on “What David Cameron should Do Next”: go see.