MARGARET Thatcher famously declared “there is no such thing as society.”

But since the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, many thinkers have insisted there is such as a thing as “the social contract,” and that it is essential for a fair and balanced society.

The trouble is, in Worcester and elsewhere, the social contract appears to be breaking down, at least judging by the numbers of homeless people on the streets.

Last month Shelter estimated there were around 320,000 homeless people in the UK, which is a rise of 4 per cent, on last year’s figures.

The statistics mean that 36 new people become homeless every day; and for them the social contract has already broken down. However, these vulnerable desperate people, on the whole, still obey the social contract in that they seem to cause the rest of us, in conventional society, as little trouble as possible, all considered.

There might be accounts of drug-taking and alcohol abuse and begging gangs, but there are very few, if any, riots; and that is a good thing. Society, however, is not keeping its part of the contract - its portion of the bargain, because the rise in the numbers of homeless people reveals that root problems in society are not being tackled and thousands of people are not being looked after properly.

They are, in fact, slipping through the net.

The fault for this must lie mainly with our politicians. Across all parties, they seem more obsessed with Brexit and less concerned about domestic problems, from teenagers sleeping in doorways through to the under-funding of the NHS. Their eye has left the ball for, while Brexit is an important national issue, many of its imagined horrors are yet to happen. For thousands of people, the prospect of a cold and comfortless Christmas is all too real.

Perhaps, also, the Victorian concept of the deserving and un-deserving poor is making a comeback? We have all walked by homeless people in the street and, on rare occasions, there are sound reasons for doing so, not least a concern for personal safety.

However, isn’t it time to restore the social contract?

In a modern, civilised society, there should be no need for food banks and no need for anyone to sleep rough on our streets, at any time of the year.