Ian Duncan Smith – two views

Mar 21, 2016 by Jill

IDS is the true Tory modernizer, by Cerberus, The Conservative Woman.

A devout Roman Catholic, he has long been associated with the now much shrunken socially conservative wing of the Tory Party…

…he favoured low taxes, free enterprise and a small state, alongside strong defence and a robust approach to law and order. A metropolitan liberal, he was not. There are many labels for this kind of politics: Thatcherite, right-wing and dry are just some…

…Duncan Smith recognised that the Conservatives had to change. But the changes he favoured were difficult and far-reaching. Specifically, he wanted to commit his party to tackling deep-seated social ills such as family breakdown, welfare dependency, worklessness and crippling educational failure in sink schools. His solution was not to throw money at problems, the knee jerk response of the Left, but to help the most disadvantaged to rebuild their shattered lives…

…Yesterday, we came to the ultimate irony: the archetypal Thatcherite going on theMarr show on BBC TV to berate his government for abandoning its One Nation roots and dividing the land through expecting the poor to bear the main burden of deficit reduction.

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Did the Christian minister’s crusade against poverty do more harm than good? By Andy Walton, Christian Today.

Duncan Smith is a committed Catholic. While he hasn’t exactly worn it on his sleeve, it’s well-known his faith is integral to his view of the world…. On a visit to a Glasgow council estate, he is said to have realised his future – a battle to eradicate poverty, while also reshaping the welfare state. Not for him simply the lassez faire economic policies of Osborne and Cameron. Instead, he approached reform of the benefits system with a missionary zeal – seemingly believing that he was on a moral mission like his forbears Shaftesbury and Wilberforce – high-minded concepts coursing through his rhetoric.

…I firmly believe he wanted to do the right thing and saw reducing benefits as a vital contribution to the common good. Yet he pig-headedly refused to acknowledge when the consequences of the changes proved disastrous – especially for vulnerable groups.

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Read also: Leading Conservative Christians regret resignation of Iain Duncan Smith by Ruth Gledhill, Christian Today