How Cameron can mend the broken society

Was the Rhys Jones murder just a crime, or the result of a new phenomenon? The answer splits left and right. We’ve heard strikingly little from Gordon Brown – and little wonder. The idea of there being a “broken society” undermines his credo. Has Britain not benefited from ten years of a Labour government dedicated to making things better for the worse off? What about all those child tax credits, those being (ahem) “lifted out of poverty”? Surely these people are all better off?

During the Labour years, violent crime has more than doubled. Youth unemployment is higher than under the Tories, lone parenthood is at a record high. These are the three symptoms of what Charles Murray identifies as an underclass. The state is bankrolling family break-up, and tearing at the bonds which tie the young to the old and communities to each other. The social decay we are witnessing in Britain is happening because of Labour welfare policies, not in spite of them.