Tories focus on 'broken society'

As the Conservatives prepare to publish a major report on social inclusion, David Cameron has called for a new focus on tackling Britain's "broken society".

The Tory leader warned that there is something "deeply wrong" with British society.

His comments come ahead of the publication this week of a report from former leader Iain Duncan Smith's social justice policy group.

Cameron has also called for "cultural" changes to support the family and reverse social breakdown.

He said the tax and benefits system must encourage couples to stay together and marry.

This approach would be at the heart of his policies as the best way to beat problems such as crime, drug abuse, teenage pregnancy and educational failure.

"We need a big cultural change in favour of fatherhood, in favour of parenting, in favour of marriage," Cameron told the BBC1's Sunday AM programme.

Duncan Smith is set to publish his group's 'Breakthrough Britain' report on Tuesday, with a wide range of recommendations.

These are expected to include an extra alcohol tax in order to fund treatment programmes, reversing the downgrading of cannabis from a class B to a class C drug, "cold turkey" treatments for heroin addicts and the power for charities and parents to take over failing schools.

The proposals will not be binding Conservative policies, with sources close to the Tory leadership saying some "will be adopted, others wont be".

However Cameron indicated that the thrust of the report, with its emphasis on the use of the voluntary sector, will be influential.

"I think this is absolutely the big question, the big argument of our times," he said.

"It is not now necessary in the same way to mend Britain's broken economy, but it is absolutely necessary to mend Britain's broken society.

"We are getting richer as a country but I think everybody knows that there is something deeply wrong with our society."

He added that "long-term, important generational change" was required, "above all really supporting families".

And he insisted that the Conservatives' belief in the role of the family, charities and "social responsibility" marked out a clear difference with Gordon Brown's government.

"When it comes to tackling social breakdown, the really big question of our time, how do we mend Britain's broken society, it is not just government action, it is action at every level," Cameron claimed.

"It is giving more power to families, giving much more power to communities. This is a complete change, a complete gulf between the two parties."

But he also said he would be happy for the prime minister, who now shares some advisers with Cameron, to pick up some of the report's ideas.

"We come into politics to get things done. If sensible ideas that we've put forward are going to be taken up [by the government] that's great," he said.

And Duncan Smith said that moves to encourage stable families did not amount to "social engineering".

"What we have tended to do here in the UK is get very narrowly focused on simple fiscal issues surrounding our lives," he told Sky News' Sunday Live.

"What we have to do is take a pace back and recognise the way we live our lives has a massive bearing on our outcomes in financial terms."

He added: "Britain almost uniquely is at the worst of all these performance figures, on alcohol, drugs, debt, broken families.

"We are the worst country of any I have seen or travelled to and they look at us and say the last country we want to copy is the United Kingdom."