Yesterday David Cameron leader of the Conservative party gave two speeches, one on social justice, and the other on the criminal justice system. (See links for transcripts of each.)
In the social justice speech David highlighted the need to look at the causes of the problems as well as the need to enforce the law. We do not have prisons of infinite size, so we might as well look at dealing with why people end up there as well as putting people in prison when we need to.
Iain Duncan Smith set up the Center for Social Justice because state agencies do not have all the answers and frequently can make matters worse. The reason for this is inflexibility. Too often a solution is thought to work, and that ends up being the only solution.
In reality there are many solutions which play their part in helping, for example the Army Cadet Force was set up after the Napoleonic wars to keep young boys off the streets and give them something to do. Others get involved in boxing or other sports.
Some are in need of far more specialised and intense care, such as those helped by Kids Company. The fact is there are an awful lot of different sorts of young people out there, in need of all sorts of help, education and interaction. The state does run quite a lot of these services directly, such as education and the Army Cadets. However it can't run and do everything, it is not light enough on its feet to adapt and change to new challenges. The Social entrepreneurs are.
But let us not get the wrong idea, this does not mean being soft on criminals, far from it. It does mean adapting the police force to local issues, making them more locally accountable rather than less.
Lastly, of course the vacuous Guardian reading and indeed in the case of Polly Toynbee, writing classes don't seem to be able to handle a Conservative party that does not live up to there silly stereotypes. As an example see Polly's drivel here.
There is a daft idea that the Conservative party is only interested in self interest and the rich. That is wrong. If that were true we would have been against the abolition of Slavery rather than pushing that through, against universal education, and indeed against all the other projects that have been aimed at helping people better themselves. We just don't believe in helping people to be poor. We believe in helping people when they need help, but above all helping people to help themselves.
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4 comments:
I do sometimes wonder if we hadn't started believing the nasty stereotypes of ourselves. At least it seems that way when I read some of the criticism of the Boy King.
To be a Conservative was surely always about empowerment, long before that word was invented. Its only lefties who are completely patronising and don't believe that the great unwashed can make their own decisions.
I agree serf. That leaves us two jobs, firstly to convert the people who have believed the left's proganda and get them to realise that we are the NICE party and the other is to show up the lefties for the patronising unhelpful dangerous windbags they are.
Perhaps you could get some of our brethren to have a look here?
Gads, is this the conservative blog or the bleeding hearts blog.
Perhaps I might suggest the ability for the police to clip some asshole round the earhole might make them think twice before engaging in anti-social behaviour. Of course, I would have an ordinary citzen do it, but I doubt the 'rights' these people have been given to behave in such an anti-social way without consequence can be undone so quickly.
The fact that the police have been de-fanged to laughable levels has no doubt encouraged anti-social behaviour. When most of their time is spent filling out paperwork for every little thing, and then stopping people for having a can of coke while driving, no doubt their efficiency will dive as fast as their self esteem.
There was a day when conservatives ran on crime and punishment and did very well at it. Although perhaps in this day and age when the voting population consists of loutish scum bags and those who are quick to offer hand wringing excuses for them, it might not be such a good idea for getting votes.
Anonymous, I think you miss the point.
There are two elements to this, one of which is tougher enfocement of the law. See the transcripts of the speeches involved, there are links in my article.
I agree that the police appear defanged. In part it is down to bad leadership and in part down to excessive paperwork. The scum to whom you refer get away with things because the police do not investigate some crimes either properly or at all. That does need looking at and if you read Camerons speech on law and order you will see that it is.
However, all this costs money, and prevention is better than a cure.
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