A legacy unfulfilled: Cameron has yet to enact the policies that might define his premiership or foster a more inclusive society

For a man known for his “chillax” tendencies, David Cameron’s speech to conference set out quite a programme of hard graft. Much of his message was surprisingly liberal and humane in tone – it is rare to find a subject so sensitive as female genital mutilation mentioned in a leader’s speech – but there were also worrying hints at a less kind strain of thought in his philosophy (and not just an absurdly harsh personal attack on Jeremy Corbyn, rather unworthy of the Prime Minister, if not the occasion) and one that promises much trouble ahead.

Even with all the transformative changes in the make-up of the Conservative Party in the decade Mr Cameron has spent running it, with more women, LGBT and ethnic minority members now in high-profile positions than ever before, it is unusual for a Tory leader to speak so clearly about the problems of discrimination that destroy the life chances of so many people in Britain today.

The specific example he gave, of a black woman who had to change her name to a more “English” sounding one to get a job, hit home, and hit hard. Here is a Conservative leader pledging his party to no less than victory in the war against discrimination. It was a significant moment, and an ambitious goal.

Mr Cameron was also brave to challenge the teaching methods of some religious schools – madrasas, yes, but also Jewish and other institutions, some nominally Christian – that fill children’s “minds with poison and their hearts with hatred”, as he put it. The Government is right to want to register and inspect them.

But Mr Cameron will have to be extremely careful that he and his Government are not seen to be Islamophobic. Where “hate” begins and ends in the discussion of a given religious text is a fine judgement. Actually going so far as to close down a religious school as a result of inspection would be a potentially incendiary move. Nor will ending physical segregation of communities be any easier. In some of our great cities populations do indeed live apart, and it is as well to recognise that ugly fact. Policies to end that situation will indeed take some very hard work.

By far the most disappointing aspect of the Prime Minister’s promised social revolutions is in housing. That passage of his speech was well trailed this morning, but was no less shocking for it. So, far from delivering the volume of affordable rented housing needed to rescue, for example, the almost 100,000 children who are homeless or living in temporary accommodation, Mr Cameron’s proposal seems aimed at the sons and daughters of the well-to-do looking to buy their first £400,000 property. Relaxing yet further the weak rules on developers providing social housing will weaken the supply of housing where it is most needed.

Five years into his premiership – and mid-way through his self-proclaimed “defining”, “turnaround” decade – there is as yet no such thing as “Cameronism”. That is a good thing, if it means a healthily unideological approach to the economic and social challenges facing the nation. That, in turn, means a Prime Minister big enough to face up to errors of judgement and policy mistakes.

On the immediate agenda, Mr Cameron needs to think again, and far more carefully, about cuts to tax credits and investment in Britain’s housing; for the longer term he needs to make the best of the mess he has made in our relations with Europe, and to set out some concrete policies to create the cohesive society he wishes to see. He is not close to it yet.