When unity is the best policy

“I’M a believer in trying to find the 95% of stuff you agree with people on rather than the parliamentary which focuses on the 5% you tend to fall out about.”

 

It may be a depressing reflection on the endless pantomime of party politics, but the truth is that in the media you simply don’t hear politicians saying things like this.

 

Which is why Nottingham North MP Graham Allen should be applauded along with former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith for their efforts.

 

The pair have put their party’s petty squabbles behind and put the future of our country first with a co-written book that aims to bring all the parties together under a banner that Nottingham citizens might already know – Early Intervention.

 

The book, catchily titled ‘Early Intervention, Good Parents, Great Kids, Better Citizens’, was released to a fair amount of acclaim in Westminster last week and puts forward the bold argument that social policymakers over recent decades have missed a trick – namely, by waiting for the problems to occur before throwing money at them.

 

Mr. Allen explains: “I don’t think it’s helpful to criticise past governments. They’ve all tried hard with different methods. What we’re saying is that there’s an even better way than those tested methods and that’s to invest much earlier.”

 

“For example, if you spend a little bit of money on intensive help visiting with a single mum, that’s going to cost you a thousand pounds. Or you wait until the kid grows up and goes wrong and you can spend a quarter of a million pound a year putting that kid in a drug rehabilitation course.”

 

“It seems to make more sense to get to these little ones and help their need because it’s actually really cheap.”

 

Perhaps equally noteworthy it Graham and Iain’s goal of getting the three major party leaders to all back the proposals in their General Election manifestos, ensuring that a popular vote won’t derail the pairs aims.  

 

“Bluntly, I don’t think I’ve got any choice in the issue,” Graham adds. “If I want something to persist for a generation in order to answer the very deep rooted problems of under attainment and underachievement – there will be, whether I like it or not, Conservative governments and Conservative or Liberal local government.”  

 

“So I want everyone signed up to this so we have a smooth long running program rather than the policy changing whenever there’s a change in administration nationally, locally or anywhere else.”

 

“We’re taking all the right steps by meeting all the party leaders. I’m going to my first ever Conservative party conference next week to see Mr Cameron with Iain and we’ve got a date with Gorden Brown and Nick Clegg.”

 

“What we’re trying to do is to get all three to sign up to something that ensure a social and political consensus.”

 

“You need to do this over 20 or 30 years if you want young people to grow up and not be yobs, drug addicts and low-attainers and spend a lifetime on benefits. If you want them to be decent citizens and good parents then you’re going to have to see this through.”

 

“Most people I’ve spoken to and the email traffic I’ve had has been surprisingly encouraging. Many people feel it was a mature way to deal with the issue.”

 

Count me in with ‘most people’.