UK Government to push through social reforms

A senior British cabinet official says Prime Minister David Cameron will use the fallout from England's riots to push through social reforms. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith said that four nights of looting and violence last week had served as a warning to the government in an interview published on Thursday in The Spectator.

“We have to look at…things like the break-down of family, failure in schools, welfare system, debt, addiction, drugs, street gangs,” said Christian Guy, Director of Policy at The Centre for Social Justice, a think-tank founded by Duncan Smith.

“Those are the sorts of issues that politicians need to do and the government needs to take a lead on,” he told Vatican Radio. “But what it mustn’t is fall into the trap of thinking it has all the answers and it can do the work of delivery. The government needs to lead and facilitate, but what we need to bring in the people who are best suited to this, which is charities faith groups social entrepreneurs the private sector where possible. They often have the solutions.”

He said whenever staff from the Centre for Social Justice visits deprived areas in Britain, its been private charities who have been able to turn things around.

“This isn’t about growing the state and more state intervention,” he said. “It has to be about leadership, culture change in government, and then releasing those who are best able to make the change to go and do their work.”

Listen to full interview by Charles Collins with Christian Guy: