Conservatives To Renew Their Marriage Vows (UK)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 12-11-2006 | Philip Johnson

[blam]

Conservatives to renew their marriage vows

By Philip Johnston
Last Updated: 3:50pm GMT 11/12/2006

Gimson Unbound: Duncan Smith crosses no man's land View the Conservatives' policy report The Conservatives today launched a bid to return marriage and family to the centre of public policy-making as they unveiled a nightmare audit of social breakdown in Britain.

‘Hoodies’ on an estate. Iain Duncan Smith says that community disintegration is endemic and he blames family breakdown

A report from the Social Justice Policy Group set up by David Cameron, the party leader, paints a grim picture of an entrenched underclass inhabiting a nether world of crime, drugs, alcohol addiction, spiralling debt and a lack of achievement from which they cannot break free.

Cut off from much of mainstream society, they also "threaten the well-being of middle-class people living in once tranquil neighbourhoods".

The inquiry, chaired by Iain Duncan Smith, the former Tory leader, is bound to deepen tensions between traditionalist Tories and the modernisers who recently suggested Tories should adopt a more liberal approach of the sort championed by Polly Toynbee, the social commentator.

Today's report comes as new figures reveal that the number of young people effectively doing nothing with their lives has risen sharply since Labour came to power.

More than 1.2 million people between 15 and 24 are not in education, work or a training scheme – a 15 per cent increase since 1997. The rise is especially marked among young men, at 27 per cent.

Shadow education secretary David Willetts, who uncovered the figures from the Office for National Statistics, said: "To reverse this dramatic increase... we need to improve standards in our schools, because what parents really care about is what happens in the classroom."

Mr Cameron has been quick to throw his weight behind Mr Duncan Smith's report, indicating that family-friendly policies such as a tax breaks for families could form part of the next Tory manifesto.

"It underlines my belief that the family is the most important institution in Britain and that if we are serious about tackling the causes of poverty and social breakdown then we must look at ways of supporting families and also supporting marriage so that couples are encouraged to get together and stay together," he said.

"Families, to me, are not just the basic unit of society, they're the best. They are the ultimate source of our society's strength or weakness. Families matter because almost every social problem that we face comes down to family stability. If marriage rates went up, if divorce rates came down – if more couples stayed together for longer, would our society be better off? My answer is yes. And so I will set a simple test for each and every one of our policies: does it help families?"

Today's report – entitled Breakdown Britain – suggests that 30 years of laissez-faire welfarism has been a disaster for the country and cannot continue. It estimates the cost of family breakdown at more than £20 billion a year. Unless there is a radical reappraisal of Government policy towards marriage and the family, social tensions will grow and communities will fall apart.

The group argues that the removal of any fiscal encouragement for marriage, the introduction of tax credits that make no distinction between cohabiting and married couples and the dependency culture created by an unreformed welfare system have all contributed to the crisis.

Labour has tried to tackle the problem through a welfare system that has pumped more than £15 billion a year in extra benefits mainly into single parent families. It has also established special projects such as the £3 billion Sure Start programmes, to supervise the upbringing of children from broken homes.

Labour has also resorted to the stick by threatening to punish parents who fail to keep their children under control.

However, today's report suggests this is a sticking plaster over a gaping wound, though detailed recommendations and policy proposals will not be produced by the group until next year. Mindful of previous criticism of Tory attitudes, the report says it is not about stigmatising lone parents.

But it says the evidence is overwhelming that the majority of young offenders come from broken homes and to be tough on the causes of crime, the causes have first to be properly understood.

The report marks the first unapologetic defence of marriage and family since the ill-starred Victorian values crusade during the Thatcher years.

It says the stable family is where the vast majority learn the fundamental skills for life and while policy to support all kinds of families appears laudable, it ignores the fact that married couples produce better outcomes for both children and adults.

The report states: "We reject the comfortable mantra that policy can or should be wholly morally neutral on the grounds that this is unworkable in practice. Although moralising is to be avoided, committed relationships are essential for the social ecology of the family, the community and the country."

Mr Duncan Smith has spent the past three years since he was ousted as Tory leader studying social breakdown in Britain.

He said yesterday: "In every area life is getting worse. Drug and alcohol abuse, worklessness, family break-up, failed education and debt run through these people's lives like a rough thread, creating a vicious cycle of deprivation. As the welfare society retreats, it leaves growing numbers dependent on the state and as social mobility grinds to a halt, the results are starkly evident."

He added: "The government has spent vast sums on tax credits and benefits to lift those just below the poverty line to just above it. However, the government appears to have forgotten about the most vulnerable. Our report shows that 750,000 more people have incomes below 40 per cent of median income than a decade ago."

Mr Duncan Smith said there was a "fundamental lack of honesty" in the political debate, which recognised the problem but refused to discuss its principal cause – family breakdown.