Cameron sets out his reforming vision
DAVID Cameron today declares the country is on a ‘long walk to a Greater Britain’ as he sets out his priorities for his remaining time in office.
Styling himself as a major social reformer, the PM plants himself in the centre ground of politics and pledges to tackle poverty, extremism, housing and social mobility.
In his New Year’s message to the public, Mr Cameron says the country is in the middle of a ‘turnaround decade’ in which economic strength is used to transform society.
He projects himself as a politician who does something about social problems, in comparison to those on the Left who ‘shout into megaphones, wave banners and sign petitions’ – a clear swipe at Jeremy Corbyn.
By talking about his leadership as a tenyear project, Mr Cameron also sends a signal to potential leadership challengers and rebellious MPs that he is in no hurry to depart the stage. After securing the first overall Conservative majority in the House of Commons for nearly 20 years, Mr Cameron faces a decisive year in his party’s history – it will confront the issue of Europe decisively in a referendum expected in June.
In his message he admits the renegotiation with 27 other member states is ‘difficult’ – and in a clear warning about the dangers of ‘Brexit’ says ‘the choice at the referendum will be whether Britain is ‘stronger and better off with our European neighbours as part of the European Union, or on our own.’
Mr Cameron pledges to deliver the Tory manifesto and open up ‘new areas of social reform’.
The PM, who is expected to make a series of speeches in the new year on challenging social issues, says: ‘I genuinely believe we are in the middle of one of the great reforming decades in our history – what I would call a “turnaround decade”, where we can use the platform of our renewed economic strength to go for real social renewal.’
On social reform he says: ‘We’re the ones who are able to make the arguments and take the difficult decisions in order to defeat these social scourges.
‘So while others are on protest march, we remain on the long walk to a Greater Britain. We won’t get there overnight. But during 2016, we will make some of our most significant strides yet.’
He says he wants to ‘get to grips’ with four key issues: housing, social mobility, extremism and poverty to create a ‘stronger, more unified, more secure’ nation.
On home ownership, he says it is a ‘moral outrage’ that young people are priced out of the housing market and that ‘in the next five years, Britain needs to get building’. He also warns councils that if they ‘can’t get their act together and build the homes their areas need, we will intervene directly’.
On poverty, Mr Cameron pledges to target ‘root causes’ including ‘worklessness and family instability’. He says he wants to ‘rescue more children from being stuck in failing care systems’.
On social mobility, he said there is too much discrimination in Britain and pledges to ‘complete the fight for equality’.
On extremism, which he says is ‘one of the biggest issues facing our country’, he pledges to ‘tackle the hate preachers’ and take down radical material from the internet.
He also insists he will tackle issues which ‘for too long have been swept under the carpet’ including ‘segregation’, the treatment of women as ‘second-class citizens’ and the ‘failure to integrate’.