Society, as Conservatives traditionally understood it, is not a machine but an organism. We should meddle, even with its most pathogenic features, with caution and with awareness of the law of unintended consequences. The next Tory government will thus have no mandate to repair the economy - which can be repaired - but a mandate to repair society - which, by and large, cannot.
The business of government is difficult. It is sometimes possible to take credit for a legacy one has not earned and to pass the buck for failure to one's successor while smiling and cheating long enough to survive. That is Tony Blair's way - to which Cameron and his friends are attracted. Or one can embrace a philosophy, expound it, practise it in season and out of season, and be judged by the results. That was Margaret Thatcher's. David Cameron is no Margaret Thatcher, nor need he be. But hers is the better way, and in the short time left before he assumes the responsibilities of power, he should be encouraged to understand and internalise her example.
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