In an interview published in Woman's Own magazine on October 31 1987 - 18 years ago today - Margaret Thatcher set out that now infamous opinion:  "There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families."  The context of Mrs Thatcher's remarks were in relation to the welfare state, which she contended has created a situation in which individual responsibility had been so eroded that people felt justified in blaming "society" for all their ills and looked therefore to "the state" to solve them.  But Mrs Thatcher's remarks had a greater political resonance than she expected.  They served to create an easy definition of Thatcherite social policy;  Cold, hard and compassionless -  A definition that the Conservatives of today are still struggling unsuccessfully to overcome almost two decades later.  By contrast, the Liberal Democrats' approach to society and social policy is one of our positive defining features.  In September's annual Populus poll for the Times newspaper, the Liberal Democrats have a significant lead over the Conservatives and Labour as the party that "shares my values" and "understands the way people live their lives in today's Britain".  That is because we understand how Britain has been changing - for better and for worse.  We are no longer a nation of one church; we are a nation of many churches.  We are no longer a nation of one colour and, increasingly, we welcome diversity.  We are less deferential for example; more inclined to think for ourselves; more open about sexuality; committed to equality.  Other changes are driven by demography.  As a society we are getting older.  By 2020, around 40% of the population will be aged over 50, compared to around 32% now.  And at the other end of the scale we are likely to need 500,000 fewer secondary school places by 2015.  These shifts will clearly have consequences for our public services, but it will also have huge implications for our economic, social and cultural life too.  For instance, we now have different expectations of what we want from life - and from work.  Gratification and happiness are becoming important measures of our quality of life.  The evolving employment market has driven many changes in our society - particularly the economic and social independence of women.  The scale of change has been dramatic.  In 1960, four fifths of the British workforce was white, male, under 45 years and in full-time employment.  By 2010 this group will make up only one fifth of the workforce.  A complete reversal in 50 years.  These changing patterns of work, and indeed the economic realities of modern life, mean that people are having to find new ways of balancing the responsibilities of work and home.  Many of course struggle to find the right balance.  And many families need more than one income to survive.  So there is no longer a single family structure in Britain in which a father works and a mother stays at home.  Families now defy a rigid definition.  We Liberal Democrats don't believe we should use the tax structure to champion just one type of family.  Political parties need to look at the different kinds of support that people may need, suited to their way of life, and provide cost-effective solutions.  One of the most important areas of public policy in which the key to developing solutions is a true understanding of the changes in society is the area of crime and criminal justice.  The United Kingdom is not alone in experiencing large increases in crime in the last 50 years; the same is true of nearly all industrialised democracies.  And it is here that the changes in society have perhaps had the most profound negative effect.  Our materialistic consumer culture gives rise to new jealousies.  No longer is there the automatic respect for authority and traditions.  Because we work longer hours, commute farther, we spend less time at home and with our children.  The tight knit geographic communities of the 50s are becoming a thing of the past.  The out-of-town shopping centre is now where people congregate - not the church hall.  In many urban areas in particular we live, increasingly, in a society of strangers.  And that brings a lack of trust.  The decline in trust in public institutions has been well documented, but it has also been mirrored by a corresponding decline in trust in each other.  In 1959, 56% said they would trust a stranger, by 1995 that had fallen to 31%.  Where we used to leave a spare house key with our neighbour - now private companies will hold your house key for a fee.  This is the privatisation of neighbourliness.  We are not looking out for each other, or each other's children, in the way that we used to.  We have lost to society the preventative effect that strong local communities and visible local policing had.  And under both Labour and the Conservatives, communities have been systematically stripped of the power they used to have to govern themselves.  The result has been a sense of alienation - a feeling that control over our lives has been lost - and control over the institutions that deliver for us.  Most of Britain's people have little sense of active citizenship - that they can take part in some way in shaping the decisions that affect the communities in which they live.  This alienation is fundamental to the problem of crime, especially low level crime and antisocial behaviour.  Crime is easier if the victim is anonymous, and if there is no community to censure criminal behaviour.  And punishment is easier if the criminal is anonymous.  We become wary of giving them a second chance because we do not truly believe they can be rehabilitated, or at least we feel it is not worth taking the risk.  This fuels the cycle of reoffending which is now at record levels.  Britain is in danger of being locked into spiral of distrust, spurred on by a sensationalist media and senior politicians pandering to populism.  Unless we are careful we are likely to withdraw further into our private worlds, relying on the police to respond and the state to provide all the answers.  We need to change this.  We need to rebuild our society.  Cohesive and trusting societies have lower levels of crime.  We need to invest people with a real sense of their rights and their responsibilities - to themselves, to their community and to our society as a whole.  So the challenge for all of us now is to get local communities and society as a whole working properly, without pretending we can simply turn the clock back.  Our young people are not immune to this feeling of powerlessness and alienation.  Perhaps our greatest challenge is to bring back into society that small proportion of our young people who are slipping away from us.  Bullying and antisocial behaviour are issues that affect every community, and impact on every family.  Of course antisocial behaviour is not a problem confined to young people.  Half of all Asbos are served on people over the age of 17.  But if we are to rebuild society we do need to focus on our future.  We need new ways of knitting communities together.  New ways of building bridges between individuals and between the generations.  And new ways of inspiring our young people, leading them away from drugs, crime or extremism, and showing them that there is so much more to life.  Now I don't want to tar all young people with the same brush; the vast majority behave perfectly well.  Youth and yob are not synonymous terms.  And "hanging out" is all part of growing up.  A group of young people gathered on the park swings are not necessarily up to no good.  But Labour actually measures the prevalence of antisocial behaviour in part as how many young people are hanging around in local communities.  For Liberal Democrats tackling antisocial behaviour is actually about tackling criminal action - abusive behaviour, graffiti, vandalism and breaching the peace.  Labour's "respect" agenda is all about public perception - it is about spin.  That is why they resort to the quick fix, with no long-term strategy to bring local communities into the process so that local people can be part of the solution rather than powerless victims.  The blunt instrument of the Asbo has its place, as a matter of last resort in the courts.  But I'm afraid that being tough on this type of crime, really does mean being tough on the causes of this type of crime.  It does mean piecing society back together again.  It does mean new measures in the criminal justice system.  But it also means action in our school curriculum and in our schools themselves.  And a new approach to social infrastructure projects.  That is why, I announced in the summer, a new Liberal Democrat youth taskforce bringing together our frontbench spokespeople on home affairs, education, local government, and youth affairs to collaborate on a unique piece of work;  Looking at restoring that link between the individual and society in our young people, and taking important steps in the rebuilding of society that I am talking about.  Mark Oaten, Ed Davey, Sarah Teather and Tim Farron are in the process of collaborating with our local councils to bring forward new and innovative national solutions.  They plan to report in the spring and to pilot some of those ideas in Liberal Democrat councils across Britain, building on the work already going on there.  The Liberal Democrat youth taskforce has been looking at some interesting new ideas.  Reinvigorating youth work through mentoring and parental support structures based on professional standards.  Investigating the concept of the youth courts that have been pioneered in the USA - peer courts passing judgements and instilling community responsibility.  Making better use of public spaces and empty buildings for youth projects, run by young people for young people.  And building proper communities in schools, and getting the wow factor back into learning.  Ed Davey has already been setting out Liberal Democrats proposals to put discipline back into schools - but we need to go further - we need our schools to be at the heart of a responsible society.  Which means better, more focused pastoral care in schools, because learning is not all about cramming heads full of facts, it is about nurturing hearts too.  And I want young people to be visible in their communities, understanding how they work, bringing the generations together, reducing misunderstandings and misperceptions - and with that reducing fear.  Mark Oaten has talked about a new concept of voluntary service.  A scheme which allows all 16-year-olds the opportunity to spend a month away from home, in different communities, volunteering for one of hundreds of different projects.  To take a 16-year-old, perhaps for the first time, away from his estate or troublesome peer group could create enormous opportunities.  Because we should remember that not every child has the opportunity of a gap year.  Because while it is right that attention is focused on exam results, the process should not just stop there.  We all have a stake in smoothing the passage of our teenagers into adult society.  Our youth taskforce will be looking at how this concept could work in practice.  This could be difficult to achieve but the rewards could potentially be high.  But I also want to see that same concept - service to the community - as part and parcel of the schools curriculum.  This is about more than citizenship classes, it is about active citizenship in the community.  In the same way that schools offer work experience schemes, I want to see voluntary service schemes as well.  As part of the new 14-19 school curriculum that Liberal Democrats have been arguing for, and that the Tomlinson report recommended, our youth taskforce is exploring the idea of community service credits as part of a rounded education.  They will also be looking at wider community systems for young people based on the "time banks" concept.  Time banks involve individuals helping one another and engaging with their community by exchanging services which can cross age, race and economic divides.  A teenager teaches a pensioner how to set up an email account, and earns "community credits" to spend on things like guitar lessons or business advice from another member of the programme.  Such systems can strengthen communities and create social networks of trust.  They can also serve to boost understanding between the generations.  Perceptions do matter in our society.  Fear of crime is rising.  But solutions must be concrete, and tackle the real issues, not just sound tough in order to reassure.  That is what the Liberal Democrat youth taskforce is all about.  Real solutions to the real problems facing our society.  The Liberal Democrat policy review "Meeting the Challenge" that I launched at our party conference and which will report next September has at its heart a focus on setting the course for a fairer, more liberal society.  The tax commission that is working alongside that more general review will be coming forward with proposals on how we can make the tax system fairer and simpler.  It is that perception of fairness which is at the heart of our vision of a cohesive, liberal society.  Because we believe in a society with a robust framework of social support and public services, in which all citizens have a stake.  Despite the growing wealth of Britain as a whole, the country has very distinct divides that endanger our social contract.  Individuals, families and sometimes whole communities still suffer from distinct disadvantages - often still as a result of the circumstances of birth.  And that is a stark measure of Labour's failure.  The truth is that under Labour, the gap between rich and poor is getting wider instead of narrowing.  Infant mortality rates for the underprivileged compared with the rest of the population have got worse since Labour has been in power.  The same is true for life expectancy.  Under Labour, Britain is getting richer - the rich are getting much richer - but again, the poor aren't getting their fair share.  The top 10% now own more than half our nation's wealth.  Yet the poor actually pay more of their income in tax.  There has been some progress - employment rates being the most positive.  But it's not only money we are talking about - unfairness under Labour goes much deeper.  In their yearly report on social inequality "Opportunity for All" the government boasts that against the baselines set in 1997, they have improved in 41 areas out of a total of 60 indicators that are measured - indicators such as educational attainment, housing standards, employment, crime rates among different age and income groups.  But a closer look at the statistics betrays the fact that social mobility has stalled in Labour Britain.  In actual fact many of the government's indicators have been fairly static over the last few years with little improvement for disadvantaged groups.  Measured against the most recent data set, the "Opportunity for All" report sees only 19 out of the 60 indicators moving in the right direction, the rest indicated no advance or indeed data moving in the wrong direction.  For instance children from poorer backgrounds are still far less likely to get five good GCSE passes than those from richer families.  And that gap is wider than it was under the Tories.  Eight years on the Child Support Agency gets no better - unable to collect or enforce billions of pounds of payments.  Eight years on Labour doesn't know what to do about the council tax - despite its obvious unfairness - and has cynically postponed the revaluation process.  Council tax is utterly unsustainable.  Eight years on pensioners have seen a 76% rise in council tax while their pensions have risen only 31% and longer term pensions policy is a complete shambles.  This government cannot afford to put off yet again the tough decisions when it comes to pensions reform.  Another fudge on pensions would betray the national interest.  Because future pensioners cannot afford to see their pensions fall further and further below the poverty line.  The current system is not fair for all - women in particular miss out.  It was designed for an age when men worked all their lives for one employer and women's pensions were wives pensions.  It needs a thorough overhaul to keep pace with modern life.  The government's response to Adair Turner's pensions commission on pensions, due to report imminently, will be a measure of Labour's true willingness to tackle the longterm problems facing our society.  If we are not careful our all the positive aspects of the way we live our modern lives will be undermined by our society's inability to cope with the problems that come with change.  Labour has shown little appetite for looking to the long term.  Little appetite for looking beyond the sound bite and the quick fix.  Little appetite to make the tough choice necessary for British society to prosper in the 21st century.  It is the liberal approach that is proving time and time again to have the right answers to the way we now live our lives.  And as liberalism's natural home, it is the Liberal Democrats who represent the best hope for the future of our society.
On October 31, Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, adressed the Institute of Chartered Engineers in London on the government's &#34;respect&#34; agenda and the changing face of British society. This is the text of that speech.