Nice speech Gordon. But why do you want to ruin such a progressive set of policies with an outdated return to the antisocial behaviour agenda?
The PM's speech this afternoon was littered with inflamatory rhetoric on "teenage tearaways" and populist "action squads" designed to "crack down on estates". Parents of kids engaged in anti-social behaviour will be forced to attend mandatory parenting classes or risk losing their benefits (which parents of badly behaved middle class kids can presumably afford to skip?) Meanwhile teenage mums will be put into networked "supervised homes" on the illogical assumption that taking away independent housing from young mums will actually make them more independent.
Brown was right to say that the government should work for the hardworking majority and not the few. But that mustn't slip into bullying the few to satisfy the bloodlust of the majority.
What makes these reactionary measures even sadder is that they come alongside what is otherwise an incredibly progressive agenda for young people and their familes. In the same breath, Brown also announced free care for two year olds, increased spending on education, 10,000 new internships and a commitment to increase child benefit every year Labour stays in power. Next to these policies, the anti-social behaviour agenda seems grim and inconsistent.
Moreover, the groups Brown's planning to clamp down upon - residents in estates, teenage mums, struggling families - are going to be hit harder than most by these policies, because they are the people who can't afford an alternative.
This is tantamount to state bullying, and nothing - not even a populist rebound in the polls - can justfiy it.
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As for the teenage mum's, providing independant housing does not necessarilly give people the ability to live independantly, it has some parallels with the old saying about giving a man fish or teaching him to catch them himself. It's the lack of parenting skills that lead to dysfunctional, anti-social families, not a lack of accommodation, and it is right for GB to address this as a priority.
"How many badly behaved middle class kids do you know?"
Plenty... the only difference is that in my area the parents of middle class children drop them off in the 'hanging around' spots and the working class children have to walk or come on bikes. Strange, but true.
Forcing immature girls who give birth out of wedlock into institutions on penalty of losing the benefits they depend upon to survive? Here the Labour Party plumbs new depths that would have been unthinkable a decade ago.
On Wednesday, October 21st 1998, the Daily Express opened with the following headline: "Outcry as Thatcher says: Send single mothers to convents". And now less than eleven years later Gordon Brown is crowing about doing much the same thing to the poor women concerned sans the religious spin. It really is heartbreaking to witness the Labour Party losing its way so comprehensively.
Who on earth is inventing these shameful and heartless policies? The Daily Mail? Melanie Phillips? A. N. Wilson? I wonder what might be the next progressive, humane and enlightened policy initiative the Labour Party intends to launch? Compulsory sterilisation of the promiscuous? Chemical castration of the concupiscent? House arrest for the venal? I am truly ashamed of the behaviour of a Party I was once proud to support and to vote for.
The Party has not just lost the next general election, it has lost EVERYTHING!
There is nothing left worth salvaging or saving.
I have joined the conservative party because of the chronic abuse of the people. It's not about bullying, it's about appropriate action for those who are not living properly, whether the ego politicians or the undeserving poor.
You forgot to mention Gordon's referendum promise or was this just hope over experience,when are we going to have the referendum that was promised in the 2005 manifesto?
I am impressed how he keeps finding all this additional money for new policies,this recession / debt thing must be a Tory myth.
I am now anti-social my bin was over - filled ( has the fine to prove it ) , Now what was that about fairness ?
ricki ( very angry )
GB is not advocating 'locking up' teenage mothers. Simply, changing how the provision of housing to new mums who need it is delivered. This is an approach that has worked well in Germany for years. It will ensure access to health &/or childcare experts in the really difficult early years as well as meaning that the Daily Mail will have to think of a new populist issue to bang on about (rather than teenage girls 'getting pregnant to get a flat').
As for GB talking about cracking down on anti-social behavior - what's wrong with that? And what's wrong with expecting parents to take their part of the responcibility for the problems their kids cause on the streets? Who else raised them? Who failed to teach them right from wrong?
Still, not that I endorse Brown's speech. The only real way to tackle this behaviour is with far more police in problem areas, on foot not in cars, and to impose serious penalties on the parents of problem kids.
Don't worry. It is almost all over. The Sun have come out, unusually early in the electoral cycle, and Brown's insane reign will soon be done and dusted (apart from the debt which we'll be paying for decades).
Whilst people may poo-poo The Sun - they are a weather vane as to how far Labour are detached from reality.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2660991/The-Sun-newspaper-withdraws-its-support-for-Labour-government.html#comment-rig
The nearest thing I've seen to crime is underage kids trying to buy fags. Other areas of our town have drug and violence problems that really need attention.
Now this applies to all unmarried mothers under 21. In 2008 there were 305,000 births outside marriage. Lets assume just 10% of those were to women under 21 - its probably more. That means we have to lock up 30,000 women a year. Assume that they then stay in the 'homes' for 3 years each....it may be more. That means at any one time we are locking up 100,000 young women whose only crime is that they were pregnant.
That's more than the prison population of England and Wales
By the way, why have Labour stolen a BNP policy? What's next? Strength through Joy?
They can carry a prison sentence for breaking them when the standard of evidence required to get an ASBO is lower than that required to get an actual prison sentence. They're a judicial short-cut that bypasses evidence standards that are there for a good reason.
If anti-social behaviour is difficult to police, we should increase the available resources, not lower the standard of evidence.
* milkmen giving up rounds because of youths assaulting them early morning. Local councillors appraoched the police to ask if anyone could go undercover on the rounds and were told no. They asked if they themselves could go but were advised against it. So nothing is done and we lose a service.
* A local park has a beautiful shelter burnt down at much cost to repair with local slate and wood having to be replaced. Again local youths are pretty certain to be the culprits but no action is taken other than to clear up and repair
* Bus shelters and bus stops endlessly having the glass smashed
* Youths on moto cross bikes riding through the middle of north downs parkland causing families and children to have to jump out of the way
* An attack on a local newsagents by a gang of around 10 children hurling abuse at the owner becaues he stopped 2 of the kids stealing from his shop. I called the police who were unbothered and generally uninterested saying someone would come down when they were available. When I said the newsagent was Asian, the kids were white and the insults were racist (all of which was true) it was a different matter with a police car there in 5 minutes.
You are so removed from the reality that a lot of the public face day in day out it's pitiful. Do we need a few more suicides in burning cars (and all the other deaths and injuries reported in recent months) before you understand?
Labour's "rights" agenda without the responsibility has bred what we now see on streets up and down the UK. Brown says he's got the message, let's see if that's really the case or just more chasing of votes.
Whats worse is that state intrusion is being extended by the adoption of BNP policies. Aren't labour meant to be fighting the BNP?
I'm disgusted.
(Clue: it is the same party from whom he nicked the slogan "British Jobs for British workers!")
But I don't like the government telling people at what time of day they're allowed to have a drink (which is what Brown has effectively proposed today) and I'm quite scared by this proposal to put young single mothers into networked state-supervised homes, rather than just normal council houses. Sounds like something which could come straight from the lips of Iain Duncan Smith.
On another note, ALEX - IS THERE ANY WAY TO AVOID HAVING TO SIGN IN EVERY TIME YOU VISIT LABOURLIST??? Can't the site just remember my login details rather than me having to sign in every time?
They will probably not make the 'cuts; and then they can claim a £2 billion increase in ermmmm yeah that's right investment.
This is a bit of an own goal really, because now that this £2bn has been identified, if they don't cut it, it will be an admission that they are spending too much - probably about £2Bn. If they do cut it, Gordon will be breaking his promise not to cut on Education.
Mmmm gnarly...
That really depends on the minority you're talking about.
I can think of a 640-odd strong minority that would benefit from a bit of bullying.
Is the increased spending on education before or after Balls' £2,000,000,000 cuts? Sorry, not cuts, what's the euphemism I'm meant to use? That list really is sad even by Brown's standards and if you can't see that then you're clutching at straws.