Lawless Britain: It’s time to fight back

“What this country needs is new ideas and effective action … Today I am calling on the country to fight back … It is time to fight back against crime, and the fightback starts here.”

David Cameron’s call to war could hardly come at a better time. Ten years ago violent crimes such as the appalling murder of James Bulger were tragic one-offs. However, last week’s shooting of 11 year-old Rhys Jones was “the latest in a string of deaths by shooting in different parts of the country”, in the words of Michael Howard. Deaths which should never have been allowed to happen, and would never have happened in a society with an effective deterrent.

Take, for example, the police stop and search power. When, by some stroke of miracle, a police officer on the street stops someone and searches them, there must be a record of this incident. As the Conservative Party It’s time to fight back report admits “this is an invasive power which must not be used casually or excessively”. However, equally excessive is the paperwork required following such a search.

Our hypothetical PC Smith would, once he has used this power, be forced to fill in a form 40 questions (that’s one foot) long – per person! In terms of PC Smith’s time on duty, an unnecessary amount of time and effort is wasted and, more importantly, PC Smith is refrained from building valuable relationships in the community, vital to effective policing.

So what is the Conservative approach? A Conservative Government, under the leadership of David Cameron, “will scrap the stop form and allow officers to stop and question an individual without making a written record” as one of several measures proposed in their short-term plan aimed at “stopping the criminal individual”.

Other proposals in the first stage include scrapping the diabolical early release scheme which enables criminals to leave prison before their term is seen-through to compensate for Labour’s poor management of the prison service (i.e. Gordon Brown refusing to invest in more prison places) and introducing tougher action on anti-social behaviour:

• A Conservative Government will scrap the Early Release Scheme. Additional emergency capacity must be found within the prison estate, and through the use of prison ships or disused army camps, to hold prisoners until their official release date.
• A Conservative Government will reform the guidance to encourage judges and magistrates to use this power to remove or delay offenders’ driving licenses, and to use it as a penalty for anti-social behaviour in general, not just driving-related offences.

Their medium-term strategy for the all-important fightback is aimed at reforming the state. A Conservative Government would enforce school discipline, introduce local control over policing and abolish the Human Rights Act, amongst other proposals:

• A Conservative Government will stop the closure of special schools and ensure parents have a meaningful choice of school that is right for their child.
• A Conservative Government will make home-school contracts enforceable, as requirements of admission and grounds for exclusion.
• A Conservative Government will scrap external appeals panels and return the last say over exclusions to schools.
• A Conservative Government will make each police force accountable to an individual directly elected by the citizens of the police force area.
• A Conservative Government will repeal the Human Rights Act and replace it with a modern British Bill of Rights.

Finally, the Conservative Party’s long-term strategy focuses on the role of society, and includes strengthening families, the role of popular culture and welfare reform:

• A Conservative Government will use the tax and benefit system to support families.
• A Conservative Government will give all employees with children the right to request flexible working.
• A Conservative Government will review the regulatory framework relating to films and video games to ensure that violence and misogyny are not directly promoted to young people.
• A Conservative Government will reform welfare by allowing independent, commercial and voluntary organisations to take on the work of finding long-term jobs for unemployed people.

One of my friends is unemployed and has been since he finished college. Why? Is it because he is too lazy to find and go to work? No. Is it because the job centre is unwilling to help? No. It is because there are no jobs which are suitable for him. However, the neighbouring authority came up with a solution, quoted in the Conservative document:

As Conservative-controlled Kent County Council has shown, however, entrenched youth unemployment is not inevitable. The Council’s Supporting Independence Programme works with independent providers to offer personalised support for benefit claimants. Analysis by Oxford University has shown that claimants who took part in the programme had a 30 per cent higher chance of leaving the benefits system than the average claimant living elsewhere in the South East.

So the Conservative Party’s approach involves the following: “Job centres will refer claimants to independent providers who will be paid for successfully getting claimants into full time and permanent employment.”

The document concludes that it is time to fight back against crime. That Labour’s “one-dimensional approach” has failed. “In its place, Britain needs concerted action to get the police back on the streets; reform schools and the criminal justice system; and strengthen families and communities.

“The Conservative Party understands that crime affects all of us, not just a small number of people in limited locations. And we recognise that it is up to all of us to help fight it: politicians, police, parents, neighbours and businesses. Social responsibility is the way to restore the Social Covenant.”

So the message to Gordon Brown is simple: the time for empty words has ended. Britain needs tough action in order to fight back and regain control of a lawless Britain and only the Conservative Party has the common-sense approach required to do so.