Fixing broken Britain

Abstract

The contention that British society was broken and in need of repair, was a leitmotif of David Cameron’s tenure as leader of the opposition. In his victory speech accepting the party leadership, he identified the need for ‘social action to ensure social justice, and a stronger society’ and declared that the Conservatives could ‘mend our broken society’. Cameron identified a number of key indicators of social breakdown which he would return to over the next five years: ‘drug abuse, family breakdown, poor public space, chaotic home environments [and] high crime’ (Cameron, 2005). He also alluded to the essential element of the broken society critique, that these problems could not be addressed by the state, but required community action through charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises.