Britian's culture of irresponsibility

I'll be on the Secret Truth radio show at 4:20 pm AK time today. Hope you can join us. Here's a nice explanation of Conservative Communitarianism in Great Britian, David Cameron says his DNA is made up of: "family, community, country." What does he mean by "community," I wonder. Can he possibly mean the global communitarian definition of community? My dad ended every toast with "God, Country and the 82nd Airborne!" I knew what that meant.

Made another youtube video, this one's crude, rude and possibly even lewd. Nordica is very suprised I put it up. She thinks she knows me. It's playing some boring piano music instead of what I chose from their list of free music, so I changed it again and found a recording of Sarah Vaugn singing "somewhere over the rainbow"! And like the etzioni video, this one has no title and no description yet. hmmm. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxgpY0glFPI
From Peter Myer's elist:

(1) David Cameron promises to tear down Labour's Big Brother government

David Cameron promises to 'tear down big government'

David Cameron used his keynote speech at the Conservative Conference to make a powerful personal appeal to the public to trust him to repair Britain by tearing down Labour's "big government".

By Andrew Porter, Political Editor at the Conservative Party Conference
Published: 8:30AM BST 09 Oct 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/david-cameron/6279125/David-Cameron-promises-to-tear-down-big-government.html

In a deeply personal speech, Mr Cameron returned repeatedly to what he described as 'my DNA: family, community, country' Photo: REUTERS

Declaring himself ready to be prime minister, the Conservative leader called on voters to place their faith in his judgment to put the country "back on her feet".

In a wide-ranging critique of Labour's 12 years in power, Mr Cameron repeatedly pledged to cut government bureaucracy and return "power to the people". The economy, society and political life had been left "broken" by more than a decade of Labour rule, he said, as he promised to tackle Britain's "culture of irresponsibility". Most strikingly, Mr Cameron, the son of a stockbroker, attempted to position the Conservatives as the defenders of the country's poor and disadvantaged.

In an angry attack on Labour's record on poverty that won him a standing ovation, he said of Gordon Brown's administration: "Don't you dare lecture us about poverty. You have failed and it falls to us, the modern Conservative Party, to fight for the poorest who you have let down."

"Family, community and country", he said, lay at the heart of his beliefs.

In stark contrast to Mr Brown, who littered his conference speech last week with policy announcements, Mr Cameron made no new manifesto pledges during his hour-long address, his last to the party before the general election. Instead, he set out a broader vision, urging voters to rate the party leaders on their judgment ahead of their policies.

"It's your character, your temperament and your judgment that in the end count so much more than your policies and your manifesto," he said. "If we cut big government back. If we move society forward and if we rebuild responsibility, then we can put Britain back on her feet. None of this will be easy. We will be tested. I will be tested. I'm ready for that, and so, I believe, are the British people.

"I know that today there aren't many reasons to be cheerful. But there are reasons to believe. Yes, it will be a steep climb. But the view from the summit will be worth it."

The Tory leader said that big government had led to "the steady erosion of responsibility" and left Britain with a "dark side" of poverty, crime, addiction, failing schools, sink estates and broken homes. He would lead Britain "in a completely different direction".

He vowed to "tear down Labour's bureaucracy, ripping up its time-wasting, money-draining, responsibility-sapping nonsense".

"This is my DNA: family, community, country. These are the things I care about. They are what made me," he said. "We will reward those who take responsibility, and care for those who can't."

Reserving his fiercest criticism for Labour's record on poverty, he said: "Labour still have the arrogance to think that they are the ones who will fight poverty and deprivation. When we announced our plan to Get Britain Working you know what Labour called it? 'Callous'.

"Excuse me? Who made the poorest poorer? Who left youth unemployment higher? Who made inequality greater? No, not the wicked Tories, you, Labour: you're the ones that did this to our society." His speech attempted to bring some optimism to the conference after the bleak economic picture painted on Tuesday by George Osborne, the shadow chancellor.

"What I want to talk about is how good things will be," said Mr Cameron.

But he warned his supporters and voters that the immediate future would be grim. "I have no illusions," he said. "If we win this election, it is going to be tough. There will have to be cutbacks in public spending, and that will be painful.

"We will need to confront Britain's culture of irresponsibility and that will be hard to take for many people."

In a highly personal passage of the speech, Mr Cameron spoke movingly about the death of his disabled son, Ivan, in February and the doubts he had experienced afterwards. He said: "When such a big part of your life suddenly ends, nothing else – nothing outside – matters. It's like the world has stopped turning and the clocks have stopped ticking.

"And as they slowly start again, weeks later, you ask yourself all over again: do I really want to do this?"

Mr Cameron then paid tribute to his wife, Samantha, who sat in the front row of the packed Manchester Central arena.

"I know what sustains me the most. She is sitting right there and I'm incredibly proud to call her my wife," he said.

Mr Cameron paid tribute to the Armed Forces and promised to equip them properly; he pledged to defend and reform the NHS and also to sweep away the "surveillance state", including ID cards; and he talked of his determination to make sure education funding goes directly to head teachers rather than quangos.

Turning to The Daily Telegraph's disclosures on MPs' expenses, he said: "We are just starting the job of building the new politics we need. Because the anger over expenses reflected something deeper."