''Our Society, Your Life'' is a 2007 policy statement for the
Conservative Party
The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right.
Political parties called The Conservative P ...
,
launched shortly after
David Cameron became
leader of the party – then
in Opposition
''In Opposition'' was a Canadian television sitcom, which aired on CBC Television in 1989."Some Hon. Members: Yawn; In opposition a political sitcom without politics -- or laughs". ''Ottawa Citizen'', October 24, 1989. The show lasted only a singl ...
– in 2005, following
a leadership election in that year.
It has been seen by some, such as Richard Kelly (head of politics at
Manchester Grammar School
The Manchester Grammar School (MGS) in Manchester, England, is the largest independent school (UK), independent day school for boys in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1515 as a Grammar school#free tuition, free grammar school next to Manchester C ...
) as a
triangulation of Conservative ideology with that of
New Labour
New Labour was a period in the history of the British Labour Party from the mid to late 1990s until 2010 under the leadership of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The name dates from a conference slogan first used by the party in 1994, later seen ...
, and linking into the idea of the
Third Way
The Third Way is a centrist political position that attempts to reconcile right-wing and left-wing politics by advocating a varying synthesis of centre-right economic policies with centre-left social policies. The Third Way was born from ...
. Kelly says New Labour "sought to reconcile ... the embedded ideals of Labour with the effects of
Thatcherism
Thatcherism is a form of British conservative ideology named after Conservative Party leader Margaret Thatcher that relates to not just her political platform and particular policies but also her personal character and general style of manag ...
". Kelly also says that ''Our Society, Your Life'' "echoed
onyBlair's rejection of the Thatcherite view that there is 'no such thing' as society":
... the big idea on which we'll build our plan for government ... is social responsibility
Social responsibility is an ethical framework in which an individual is obligated to work and cooperate with other individuals and organizations for the benefit of the community that will inherit the world that individual leaves behind.
Social ...
. The idea that there is such a thing as society, it's just not the same thing as the state. Social responsibility means that every time we see a problem, we don't just ask what government can do. We ask what people can do, what society can do.
Instead Cameron supported what Kelly describes as the
Burkean "little platoons": the network of families, churches and voluntary organisations which supposedly bind a society together.
See also
*''
New Labour, New Life For Britain
''New Labour, New Life for Britain'' was a political manifesto published in 1996 by the British Labour Party. The party had recently rebranded itself as New Labour under Tony Blair. The manifesto set out the party's new "Third Way" centrist approa ...
''
*
Big Society
References
External links
''Our Society, Your Life''(
PDF document)
{{David Cameron
Conservative Party (UK)
Political history of the United Kingdom
Party platforms
2007 in politics
2007 documents