"They're casting their problem on society. And, you know, there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people . . ."

So said former prime minister Margaret Thatcher in 1987. Anybody who now agrees with her is generally regarded as unfit for public office. Even the Conservative party has repudiated her wickedness. David Cameron never misses an opportunity to assure his audience that she was wrong, that there really is such a thing as society.