I'm the One Nation Tory

BRITAIN is governed badly.

The Blair administration has deformed and abused every rule of good government.

The consequence is a poor process of decision-taking, bad laws and a blundering administration.

There are two essential reasons for this mess. The first is the Prime Minister's attempt to concentrate power around himself. The second is, perversely, his failure to do so. Gordon Brown has created his own power machine in the Treasury. And the two centres of power spend their time at war with each other. Blair and Brown are like two generals locked in an unwilling coalition and constantly disputing who is giving the orders.

Every member of the Government is labelled a Blairite or a Brownite. Even senior civil servants have their careers discussed in terms of their acceptability to one camp or the other.

Incoming governments are often impatient to carry out their programmes.

Blair's frustration with the machinery of government was on immediate display. But his answer - packing government departments with political "commissars" in the shape of special advisers and the peopling of No 10 with outsiders - has merely undermined the neutrality of the civil service, compromised the accountability of government and marginalised Parliament.

These complaints are not the lament of an "anorak" political scientist: they should be of concern to every citizen who thinks a government is the servant of the people, not the people the servants of a government. Bad government is a tax on democracy and a burden upon the people.

One of the first tasks of an incoming Conservative government should be to dismantle the apparatus of presidential government and reassert the role of the Commons as the nation's forum for debate and decision.

Under Blair, Cabinet government has virtually ceased to exist. This is not just a matter of political logistics - it goes to the heart of mature decisionmaking and the quality of government. It is the very process of hammering out issues through the established machinery of government and the confidential debate which takes place in Cabinet and its committees which knocks policy into shape and identifies the challenges to it.

We need a drastic cut in the numbers of special advisers. The No 10 Policy Unit has grown to a ridiculous size - and it is unaccountable. Whole chunks of policy can be developed and implemented with barely the involvement of the relevant Secretary of State, let alone more junior ministers.

The civil service has become bypassedand politicised under Blair. We need a Civil Service Act to guarantee the independence of the civil service.

The dispensing with collective discussion at Cabinet level, the dominance of unelected advisers, the blurring of the distinction between political operative and civil servant and the attempts to politicise the civil service - this has led to bad government and bad structures of government.

But we also need to reassert the role of Parliament. We need a reformed second chamber, with, realistically, a mix of elected and nominated members.

Its powers would be written in statute to ensure - as is the case in other democratic systems - that the primacy of the Commons could not be challenged.

I believe this would strengthen Parliament and improve its ability to scrutinise legislation and to hold a government to account.

I would timetable legislation in genuine agreement with the Opposition, and accept that this meant less legislation. There should be more opportunity to debate big subjects while they are at the top of the agenda - and the Prime Minister should be willing to engage in those debates. I would permit the House freely and genuinely to choose members of the select committees which are there to scrutinise the actions and policies of each government department. The way the Labour government has parachuted ex- ministers into select committee chairs is an abuse of the system.

The party will be better in government if it sets out to prepare itself in opposition. The leader should not personally dominate every aspect of Opposition. Shadow Cabinet members need to be free to operate in their own sphere in their own right - and to establish their personality and policies.

We need to persuade people that we have the ideas and the people fit for government. To do that, Shadow Ministers need the chance to show they can take the heat in the kitchen.

As the party prepares for government it will develop and change.

When I describe myself as a "One Nation" Conservative, I am calling upon a long tradition of adapting to and embracing the changes in the society from which we spring. This process of modernisation and change needs to continue.

I agree with Theresa May that those who sit for the Conservative Party in Parliament and elsewhere need to be more like the people they want to represent. The deep-rooted tolerance towards the way people chose to lead their lives - and a determination to give people as much choice as possible about how they lead their lives - is the basic contract Conservatives have always offered the British people.

The strengthening of our society, the call for an "active" society or for an energetic civicism, also lie at the heart of modern Conservatism.

Perhaps it is most effectively described as a partnership between an accountable and open government and the engaged citizen. That is why the restoration of the proper practice of government and the proper authority of Parliament are essential. If government abuses its power, it destroys the basis for such a partnership.

Concern for the quality of government and the integrity of the political system is an essential thread of the Tory tradition. It matters because we wish to see a strong society based on the actions of individuals promoting the common good. The essential prerequisite for that is government that applies the rule of law to itself.

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