God, how long has IDS been banging on about 'Broken Britain'? Although British people are very partial to a moan, a tut and a sigh after a while they tire of criticism and get a bit defensive.
So it is with Cameron's electoral carping about our wider social failures; the focus groups are apparently turning against the relentless diatribe. For one thing the people find it hard to stomach the hectoring words of privately educated and privileged Tories decrying the life choices of the lower classes.
The growing perception is many of the intractable problems the Cons identify, are drawn from statistical analysis of various reports rather than life experience itself.
This suspicion was rather confirmed with the Tory report published this week, 'Labour's Two Nations'. On teenage pregnancy, it states with unfaltering confidence, "In the most deprived areas, 54 percent are likely to fall pregnant before the age of 18." You are quite entitled to spit your tea out over that dodgy stat which was repeated three times in the report.
The true figure is 54 in 1000 or 5.4%. But to the pompous suits in central office, it may be entirely reasonable to assume more than half of teenage girls are pregnant. And notice they even use the 1950s style phrasing of 'falling' pregnant. It's only one step away from saying 'fallen women.'
The country has big social problems for sure and many which one hoped a Labour Government would have done a whole lot more to address. But I doubt whether our serious social ills will be cured by these remote patriarchs of the Tory Party.
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