This morning, David Cameron is delivering his first major speech in response to last week's riots.
He is placing an emphasis on the demoralisation of society in recent years.
He asks: "Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?
"Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences. Children without fathers. Schools without discipline. Reward without effort. Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control. Some of the worst aspects of human nature tolerated, indulged - sometimes even incentivised - by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally de-moralised."
It reminded me of a piece Lord Sacks wrote in The Times on Friday. "We need a new culture of responsibility. Societies can be remoralised."
The Chief Rabbi wrote: "Too much of contemporary society has been a vacation from responsibility. Children have been the victims of our self-serving beliefs that you can have partnerships without the responsibility of marriage, children without the responsibility of parenthood, social order without the responsibility of citizenship, liberty without the responsibility of morality, and self-esteem without the responsibility of hard work and achievement."
The prime minister talks about the literal demoralisation of the state. The Chief Rabbi writes about remoralising society.
And this morning, on Radio 4, work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith spoke about how politicians are partially to blame for the collapse in moral values that contributed to the riots.
It is a narrative that suits Cameron. It echoes his original vision for society outlined when he was in opposition.
It's fixing broken Britain.
Way back in 2008, Cameron said that Britain is "dealing with the issues of family breakdown, welfare dependency, failing schools, crime, and the problems that we see in too many of our communities".
It could be lifted right out of today's speech.
So, an 'I told you so' moment for the prime minister. And a head start in the moral hand-wringing that will dominate recess.
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As an aside, in a recent interview with Lord Sacks, I asked if there was a place for religion in politics. His full reply is worth noting.
"My view is that religion is about civil society and the pre-political virtues. It’s about the game rather than the team… Religion as shaping families, communities, a sense of the common good, mutual responsibility. That word that’s key to Judaism but you can’t very easily translate it in English – ‘Tzedakah’ – which means both justice and charity, what you call welfare, what the revolutionaries called fraternity. Your welfare is my welfare. All of those things create the infrastructure of a workable polity. We’ve seen in a lot of places right now in the Middle East what happens when you try and create democracy without civil society."
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