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Much has been written lately about Tony Blair’s steadfast support of George Bush’s emerging plans to topple Saddam Hussein’s regime. Blair’s stance has drawn fire within his own party, an act of political courage made even more vivid when contrasted with fellow center-left European political leader, Gerhard Schroeder, who used his opposition to the potential Iraqi military conflict to bolster his flagging re-election campaign in Germany.

However, there is a different conflict churning in Britain, one that presents another uncharacteristic re-posturing in British politics. The Conservative Party is calling on the Blair government to do better by way of the poor. Notably, the Tories recently devoted one full day in their annual party conference to the plight of the disenfranchised and what they intend to do about it.

The Tories have their work cut out for them. For the past fifteen years, the Labor Party has made a caricature of Margaret Thatcher’s 1980s utterance that there is no such thing as society. By labeling the Tories heartless and out of touch, Labor was able to wrest control of Parliament in the mid-1990s. But Blair did more than define the Conservatives, he redefined Labor. Immediately upon taking control of government, Blair implemented work-based welfare of the American variety.

Now it is the Conservatives’ turn to reinvent themselves and to offer their own blueprint for social reform. Tory leaders, such as MP David Willetts, defend Lady Thatcher by claiming that she understood that individuals and families underpinning her view of society were more than just economic calculating machines. Still, he acknowledges that attempting to simply rewrite history is not the right political strategy to win back the electorate.

Instead, new party leader, Iain Duncan Smith, and his shadow cabinet used the party conference in Burnemouth this past week to reintroduce themselves and to issue an action agenda that offers an alternative to Blair’s Third Way philosophy. Indeed, one of the main messages sent by the Tories is that the Third Way is all about philosophy and little to do with action, let alone results.

The central tenet of the Tories’ new agenda is that Labor’s reliance on direct state intervention and means-tested benefits is not sustainable. Duncan Smith argues that such reliance undermines the networks of family and community that are best positioned to help people help themselves. Alternatively, he places his trust in the “people-sized” organizations of the voluntary sector.

Some might see parallels of this strategy to George W. Bush’s formula in the United States. Billing himself as a compassionate conservative, President Bush has emphasized such themes as “prosperity with a purpose,” and made claims such as “there is no great society which is not a caring society.” In his first speech as a presidential candidate, Bush attempted to rally what he called the armies of compassion to aid the vulnerable in society. His inaugural address and numerous speeches since then have emphasized the need for civic engagement and increasing the strength and vitality of the institutions of civil society.

Bush’s struggles within his own party and at the hands of the opposition may prove instructive for the British conservatives. From the Right, there is criticism that the role of government should be reduced, not enhanced, in attempting to solve our ills. Further, they claim, government’s endorsement of civil society causes such breaches as church-state conflict and the independent sector becoming dependent on public resources.

From the Left, there are ominous soundings about the ascent of charitable organizations causing a diminished role of the state and thus placing the needy in harm’s way. This belief presumes some sort of zero-sum balance of assets that can be deployed toward societal problems, in contrast to the leveraging effect that enhanced public-private partnerships can evoke.

The Tories aim to blunt such criticism by taking their cause straight to the poor, and those who serve them, for answers. Leading up to this year’s convention, the Tory shadow cabinet participated in One Nation Hearings, comprised of visits to Britain’s hardest pressed communities. They spoke to the homeless, the disabled, and other disenfranchised citizens. The information gathered through these One Nation sessions will form the foundation for a future legislative agenda that “releases the energies of our good neighbors.”

All this activity could be shrugged off as political gamesmanship intended to soften their image and shed their reputation as the anti-people party. However, the Tories are confounding their would-be critics with policy prescriptions to back up their new rhetoric.

Duncan Smith framed the Tories’ emerging legislative agenda by identifying the five giants that threaten the hopes and security of Britons, especially the most vulnerable among them. These five giants include failing schools, crime, sub-standard health care, child poverty, and insecurity in old age.

Each of these issues was addressed this past week in shadow cabinet members’ convention speeches. Of course, by definition the party out of power in a parliamentary system can do little more than suggest what should be done and debate why and how the government’s agenda comes up short. Yet, if done persuasively, the opposition party holds the power to change the terms of the debate altogether.

During his speech to the Labor Party conference the week prior, former U.S. President Bill Clinton defended the Third Way politics as the movement of ideas in contrast to conservatives who rely on ideology alone. In response, the Tories criticized the Third Wayers as seeking change for the sake of change. The Tory way would be change with a purpose.

In supporting the case for their new purpose, Duncan Smith has turned to Labor’s grand historical figure, William Beveridge, father of the British welfare state. Said Beveridge in 1948, “The making of a good society depends not on the state but on the citizens, acting individually or in free association with one another, acting on motives of various kinds, some selfish, some narrow and material, others inspired by the love of man and love of God.”

From the Tories’ perspective, the only sure route to toppling Britain’s five giants is to help citizens do the toppling themselves. Just as Tony Blair is leading his party toward a military solution against terrorists, Iain Duncan Smith is leading the Tories to rediscover society at home. Together, perhaps they can join the United States in helping instill it in places such as Kabul and Baghdad after the military forces complete their mission. Such is the purpose of a neighborly society at home and abroad.