Character-formation and personal responsibility are the key to tackling a host of social problems, and the evidence suggests that character is formed in the home, Conservative leader David Cameron has said.
In speech to Demos, a leading centre-left think tank in the UK, he said it was “blindingly obvious” that it was not possible to begin to solve social inequality, poor educational outcomes and poverty without addressing issues of character and responsibility.
Citing research carried out by Demos, he said that sound parenting was more important than wealth in giving children the best start in life.
The research, Mr Cameron said “shows that the differences in child outcomes between a child born in poverty and a child born in wealth are no longer statistically significant when both have been raised by “confident and able” parents”.
He added: “For those who care about fairness and inequality, this is one of the most important findings in a generation. It would be over the top to say that it is to social science what E=MC2 was to physics, but I think it is a real ‘sit up and think’ moment. That discovery defined the laws of relativity; this one is the new law for social mobility.”
Mr Cameron added that evidence also showed that children perfomed better when children were raised by both their parents, and that, at the heart of his party’s social policy was its commitment to…commitment.
This would be reflected in its recognition of marriage in the tax system, he said. He also committed the party to ending the couple penalty in the tax credits system, “which disgracefully encourages parents to live apart”.
Mr Cameron accepted that it was easier to achieve good parenting when there is material prosperity but he added that these latest findings were “so significant that they should help us to settle a fierce debate that has been raging for decades about how we build a fairer society”.
Mr Cameron stressed that while politicians weren’t “exactly paragons of virtue”, the issue of personal character was “too important to bottle out of”.
Mr Cameron said that he believed that to build responsible character “we need to focus on the three areas where character is formed in our early lives – in the family, at school and through the influences of wider society – and take action to ingrain responsibility through each”
He said that it was “not just right but essential that we take a view on how responsible character is formed, and what government can do to help build it”.
