At last a message to gladden the hearts of true blue Tories

David Cameron's Nelsonian call today "for every man to do his duty" is the latest evolution of the new Conservative narrative on "social responsibility".

In his speech to a youth charity today, Mr Cameron focused on themes of duty and responsibility to others. His big idea is to call for a new type of national service, in which young people serve the community by doing voluntary and charitable work.

Mr Cameron has recast both Douglas Hurd's concept of the "Active Citizen", (something Mr Hurd spoke of when he was standing for leadership of the Conservative Party) and David Willetts' idea of civic responsibility.

Slowly but surely a real Conservative story is beginning to emerge.

As Oliver Letwin described last week, social responsibility is about rolling forward the frontiers of society - the interlocking network of family and community institutions on which so much of human relationships depend. The role of Government is to push forward - to enable - those frontiers rather than the frontiers of the state.

Social Responsibility is a narrative that will chime well with Tory voters and will do much to motivate the core vote. It has the advantage of not sounding too reactionary but returning to the best of Conservative traditions of the "little platoons". It can be applied to a host of other Conservative policies too - local government devolution (localism), elected police commissioners, shared responsibility for the environment, genuine local consultation over planning and community cohesiveness.

Often in the past when the Conservatives have had a good idea, they have stuck to it for a few months and then moved on to the latest snappy slogan. Let us hope that social responsibility is a concept that is here to stay.

To read more by Watlington, see Watlington.