Ed Balls, one of Brown's most trusted allies, has enjoyed star billing status in the Cabinet with his appointment as secretary of state for children, schools and families. His arrival has outshone the top post-holders at the Treasury and Foreign Office. David Cameron has reacted by installing one of his closest confidantes Michael Gove as children's spokesman to shadow Balls.
Underlining the Conservative's new-found seriousness on youth-related issues, former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith this week released a 200,000-word report to the party's Social Justice policy commission (see p2). It examines how "broken families, drug and alcohol addiction, failed education, worklessness and debt" have created what Duncan Smith describes as Britain's "breakdown society". It remains to be seen which of the report's various recommendations become Tory policy, but the report is the culmination of months of fact-finding taking in the country's most deprived estates. The opposition's fresh focus is welcome and should keep this Government on its toes.
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