David Cameron's Greatest Speech

That’s what they are saying at conservativehome.com. British Conservative Party leader David Cameron outlined his agenda for change in Britain earalier today at the annual Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, England.

And yes, the speech really was about change. Cameron declared that he would declare war on the underperforming state education sector. Those focus groups must have had some pretty salty things to say about the schools if a national politician felt emboldened to say this:

The election of a Conservative government will bring - and I mean this almost literally - a declaration of war against those parts of the educational establishment who still cling to the cruelty of the "all must win prizes" philosophy and the dangerous practice of dumbing down.

In fact, the Tories propose to introduce schools that will be independent of the state monopoly that operates through Local Education Authorities.

But the biggest line for me was Cameron’s amplification of his core philosophy: “There is such a thing as society. It’s just not the same thing as the state.” He quoted the words of Labour spokesman. “David Miliband said that ‘unless government is on your side you end up on your own.’” We’ve heard that one before, of course. Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have used it. Cameron exploits the opening offered by Miliband.

For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between. No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on. No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in. No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society - just them, and their laws, and their rules, and their arrogance. You cannot run our country like this.

This is a big deal for me, because it anchors Cameron in the broad church of conservatism that begins with Edmund Burke and the “little platoons.” A free society cannot just be the government and the free individual. Instead, as Cameron says, it must be the whole panoply of free institutions, anchored by responsibility:

For me, the most important word is responsibility. Personal responsibility. Professional responsibility. Civic responsibility. Corporate responsibility. Our responsibility to our family, to our neighbourhood, our country. Our responsibility to behave in a decent and civilised way. To help others. That is what this Party is all about. Every big decision; every big judgment I make: I ask myself some simple questions. Does this encourage responsibility and discourage irresponsibility? Does this make us a more or less responsible society? Social responsibility, not state control. Because we know that we will only be a strong society if we are a responsible society.

In all Cameron used the word “responsible” or “responsibility” 28 times in his speech. And that is right, of course. A conservative society is a responsible society.