The 11th commandment: thou shalt not pass the buck

Tories blame family values - opponents blame the Tories

The Chief Rabbi, Dr Jonathan Sacks, yesterday damaged the Tory claim to the moral high-ground when he said the country was paying the price for the years of "over-individualistic" Thatcherism.

With ministers jockeying for position on moral and family values, while attempting to deny all responsibility for declining standards, the views of Dr Sacks, whose predecessor, Lord Jakobovits, was a favourite of Mrs Thatcher, will cause deep discomfort to the Tories.

The debate about the state of society has been stoked up over the last week by the campaign of Frances Lawrence, the widow of the murdered head teacher; the furore over paedophiles, stalkers, guns, combat knives; and - over the weekend - the attack on Tony Blair by a leading Roman Catholic for his stance on abortion.

But Dr Sacks yesterday cut through all those issues to tell the BBC Radio 4 Sunday programme that society was reaping the consequences of what Margaret Thatcher had sown, when she said there was no such thing as society.

"I admire that particular former Prime Minister for many things," the Chief Rabbi said, "but even great prime ministers can be wrong. I think when she said there was no such thing as society she was making a terrible mistake, and we know exactly what happens when society begins to disintegrate."

Dr Sacks said he did not believe voters had realised the consequences of an "over- individualistic" social order.

"Now that we're beginning to see the impact - of broken families, of weakening communities, and we're seeing that in every respect - we're beginning, belatedly, to put things back together again."

Moving very much in that direction, the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Shephard, yesterday jumped to the defence of "traditional" family values, after it emerged that a proposed statement of moral guidance to be issued by the School Curriculum and Assessment Authority had ducked all mention of the virtues of marriage.

Dr Sacks - whose views on the impact of Thatcherism were shared over the weekend by Tory backbencher Hugh Dykes - said: "If we load all the burden on schools, then we are placing an unfair responsibility on teachers. I think teachers need to be supported and not criticised."

Mr Dykes said: "Even people on the moderate right of politics are bound to agree that Thatcherism over the years has inevitably produced an unfair society.

"Vast numbers of moderate, fair-minded people in Britain feel strongly that we now have a modern society of gross unfairness and inequalities."

Adding his weight to the views of Dr Sacks and Mr Dykes, Labour's education spokesman, David Blunkett, said: "It ill comes from a Government under whose tutelage the nation has seen a disintegration of social cohesion - a doubling of crime, and a tripling of one-parent families.

"Suddenly, after 18 years, we have Mrs Shephard, we have Michael Howard and their colleagues wringing their hands, pretending this is nothing whatsoever to do with them, this is all society's fault, and they've had no part in it."

In an ideal situation, Mr Blunkett told Radio 4's The World this Weekend programme, families would provide stable and loving relationships, and in an ideal society people would treat each other as they would expect to be treated.

"Where the ideal doesn't exist, we need to support and work with the family as part of the wider community to ensure that stability remains.

"Now that is something that has broken down very badly indeed in recent years. Not all of it's the Tories' fault, but if you have a breakdown of social cohesion, you can hardly blame me for suggesting the Government are hypocrites when they wring their hands and say it's nothing to do with them, and now they're going to start to do something about it."

Joining in the debate yesterday, Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop, admitted that her generation had failed in raising its children. She did not believe that politicians could tackle the problem because of their economic preoccupations.

Ms Roddick said: "I believe my age group have failed. There is no doubt about that. It doesn't seem to me that either the education or the financial system, or indeed the political system, is working."

Asked what was the root cause of what had gone wrong, she said: "I think there's no compassion left. I think there's no moral outrage."