The development of society and the way we live our lives has replaced the economy as the cornerstone of Conservative policy thinking, Oliver Letwin has proclaimed.
The chairman of the Party’s policy review said the focus now was to make politics “socio-centric” rather than “econo-centric”, and stated: “Instead of being about economics, politics in a post-Marxist age is about the whole way we live our lives: it is about society.”
Delivering a keynote speech on Cameron Conservatism, Mr Letwin stated: “Politics today is socio-centric. The first theoretical advance of Cameron Conservatism is to see that fact clearly – to refocus the debate, to change the terms of political trade, to ask a different set of questions.”
Suggesting that a period when politicians have been “wandering around in the mist” seeking a way forward is now over, Mr Letwin told an invited audience at Policy Exchange in central London that the Conservatives, under David Cameron’s leadership, had emerged with fresh thinking and ideas.
“Instead of arguing about systems of economic management, we have to discuss how to make better lives out of the prosperity generated by the free market,” he declared.
Mr Letwin also highlighted a substantial policy divide between Mr Cameron and Gordon Brown, with Cameron Conservatism adopting a different approach to society from the Chancellor’s.
Instead of failed efforts to improve society and the quality of life by control from the centre, Cameron Conservatism is arguing for frameworks that give people and organisations the incentives to act in ways that fulfill not just their own self-interested ambitions but also their wider social responsibilities.
He said: “Cameron Conservatism puts no faith in central direction and control. Instead, it seeks to identify externalities (social and environmental responsibilities) that participants in the free market are likely to neglect, and then seek to establish frameworks that will lead people and organisations to internalise those externalities – to act of their own volition in ways that will improve society by increasing general well being.”
Mr Letwin said Cameron Conservatives now have both an analysis of the nature of twenty-first century politics, and a theory of the role of the modern state.
“To win a battle of ideas is always a hard task. But having an idea is certainly a good starting-point,” he added.