It is an interesting sport, watching the Conservatives in action.  Since the advent of David Cameron, groups such as Shelter and the issues we are involved in have been picked over by Conservative politicians in search of sticks with which to beat the Government.  It is a somewhat discomforting experience being out-outraged by a Tory frontbencher.

But their current approach, politically effective while it may be, has clear limitations when it comes to influencing policy.  Today’s report about the difficulties experienced by homeless people being discharged from hospital is a good example.  The issue is undoubtedly a real and important one: not only is the lack of secure housing for people on discharge from medical treatment a personal tragedy for the individuals themselves, it’s also a net cost to the taxpayer, who has had to foot the bill for treatment which is likely to prove ineffective for patients without a stable and decent place to convalesce.

The trouble is the Conservatives are very careful not to commit themselves to the sort of policies that would actually solve the problem.  Yes, there are some promises about tinkering with the system administratively.  But the real problem is not the difficulties of joining up health and housing or even of solving the sometimes intractable issues presented by homeless people themselves, but the shortage of homes to give them.  Even if the systems worked perfectly, even if people in need dealt with the problems that may have been the immediate cause of their homelessness, the simple truth is there are not enough houses to go round.

And this is where the danger for the Conservatives lies.  Picking on street homelessness as an obvious symbol of the failings of modern welfare is all very well.  But sooner or later, someone will start to draw the connection with the rise in housing need and the resistance of Conservative local authorities to the building of new homes, particularly where those homes would go to poorer, less popular groups in society.  Already, since the Conservatives have taken control of London boroughs such as Hammersmith and Fulham, and Boris of City Hall, we have seen a reduction in the targets for social housebuilding.  That pattern is repeated elsewhere in England.

Perhaps that disjunction between words and actions will not be sufficient to halt their seemingly inexorable march towards power in Parliament.  But it should give closer observers cause for concern.

A call out of the blue to tell me of the sad death of Michael Meakin, one of the founders of RAPt (which I ran before I came to Shelter).  Given that Michael had been given only months to live some time ago (OK – in 1942), it should not have come as a shock.  But the fact that he had managed to outlive that prediction by 65 years despite manifold physical challenges showed the determination of the man.  
 
De mortuis nil nisi bonum* and all, but I often struggle to pretend that someone who was deeply flawed while alive was a saint now they’re dead.  Nevertheless, Michael is someone who deserves a glowing obituary.  Of all the people I have worked with in charities over the past 25 years, he is one who stands out for integrity and commitment.
 
But he was nothing like the image of a voluntary sector leader.  Small, impeccably dressed and unfailingly well-spoken, he looked and sounded what he was: a career City financier.  He did not talk the language of commitment and passion but lived it; while all around was chaos, he simply got on professionally and determinedly with the job in hand.
 
And those are qualities which we sometimes overlook in the sector.  Just up the road from our office is a graffito which quotes from Andre Gide: “Only those things are beautiful which are inspired by madness and written by reason” (our graffiti artists are a cultured lot here in Old Street).  We habitually overvalue madness and undervalue reason: worshipping at the feet of the inspired lunatics who were the moving spirits of so many charities (Shelter included), we neglect the individuals who made their visions real, who built workable organisations, who delivered the changes they could only call for.  Michael was one of the latter: a doer not a sayer.  And God knows, we can ill afford to lose people like that.
 
*Roughly translated: don’t speak ill of the dead.  Attributed by Diogenes Laertius to the Spartan king Chilon, if you’re interested.  Which you’re probably not, I suspect.