Iain Duncan Smith may not have been the greatest leader of the Conservative Party, but, from the backbenches, he has re-launched himself as a fearsome fighter for the disadvantaged. Through his Centre for Social Justice he has developed a huge understanding about both the causes and effects of poverty in Britain.  Last week he launched a weighty document called “Breakdown Britain” which paints a grim picture of an entrenched underclass inhabiting a nether world of crime, drugs, alcohol addiction, spiralling debt and lack of achievement from which they cannot break free.

In the same week we saw many more column inches devoted to the £4m inquiry into Princess Diana’s death, and to Mr Blair helping the police with their inquiries.  It is easy, therefore, to see why politicians get their priorities wrong.  We are, after all, part of the electorate not a breed apart.  So we are part of the news agenda rather than the force that dictates it.  Iain Duncan Smith has reminded us politicians what we are for.  In the words of the prayer said at the start of every Parliamentary day, we are there “to improve the condition of mankind”.  The huge human and financial cost of family breakdown and the grinding misery that exists in too many communities is as relevant now as it was to previous generations of Tory social reformers such as Shaftsbury and Wilberforce.  It would be a good New Years resolution for us all to concentrate our energies on the real issues that matter rather than the lesser ones that may be on the news agenda.

On a more cheery note, I was nearly run over by a bus in Northbrook Street on Friday.  Buses do not rev these days, they purr and this one crept up on me with the speed and stealth of a cheetah.  It proved an expensive experience because I was saved by an eagle-eyed charity chugger to whom I felt duty bound to contribute.  No more Newbury By-elections for the time being.  Happy Christmas!