Cameron: National effort needed to save the family
David Cameron has said there should be a national effort to save the family
Friday, 16, Feb 2007 12:00
David Cameron has today said there should be a national effort to save the family in the UK.
He announced plans to "compel" fathers to stay with children, to introduce tax breaks for marriage, and schemes to instil a sense of social responsibility in the nation's youth.
"If we are to rebuild our broken society we have to get the foundation right. And the foundation of society is - or should be - the care of children by the man and the woman who brought them into the world," the Tory leader said.
Speaking at a voluntary youth organisation in his Witney constituency Mr Cameron said his policies would focus on the wellbeing of families before all else.
"The first test of any policy is: does it help families?" he explained.
The Conservative leader said a culture of personal responsibility was his second priority, with a common sense approach coming next.
"There is a role for government here - there are actual policies that need to be implemented. But the real responsibility for improving children's wellbeing lies with society - with all of us," he said.
And making sure children are brought up by more than one person is key to this.
"We urgently need to reform the law, and the rules around child maintenance, to compel men to stand by their families," the Tory leader said.
But this is just the beginning.
"Bringing up children is a very difficult job - far harder than anything we do in our professional lives. And it is something we cannot do alone. The nuclear family is not enough . . . we need a national effort to support parents," Mr Cameron said.
He called for grandparents, uncles and aunts to help out and the tailoring the welfare system to help parents stay together.
He also wanted children and young adults to recognise their responsibility to society.
"Rather than stridently asserting their rights as free individuals, I want young people to recognise that we're all in this together," Mr Cameron said.
"That our freedoms come with responsibilities attached - indeed, that our freedoms are only preserved by our collective commitment to self-restraint and duty.
"That's why I set up the Young Adult Trust and why I want to see a national community programme for all 16-year-olds that stresses their responsibilities as adult citizens. I am not waiting for a general election - pilot schemes are running in Croydon this week."
Mr Cameron also called for a crackdown on health and safety and legal checks that are stopping teachers and pupils from acting in the best interest of the child.
"When we were last in government, in another political era, we stood for economic revival," he concluded.
"We now stand for social revival. We used to stand for the individual. Now we stand for the family, for the neighbourhood - in a word, for society."