Maude responds

Here are Francis Maude’s answers to the questions posed by CoffeeHousers:

Sue Denim

“The Tories are ignoring their base to chase the votes of the soft centre-left. Discuss.”

I don’t really know what this means.  We have to be a national party, generous in outlook and broad in appeal.  I’ve always thought that most people’s instincts and preferences are in line with ours: for social responsibility rather than central state control; believing that there is such a thing as society but that it’s not the same thing as the state.  We’ve never believed that everything can be left to the market or that individual responsibility is all.  We know that there are deep-seated social problems that require pro-active intervention – for example getting people who’ve been out of the labour market back into work, or reducing crime by getting ex-prisoners back into the mainstream rather than back into prison as happens with two thirds of them currently.