I was dismayed last year when David Davis resigned as shadow home secretary to force a by-election, but thought that the appointments of Dominic Grieve and then Chris Grayling as replacements would be a good thing. The former is thoughtful and the latter a bruiser. Unfortunately, the speech yesterday by Chris Grayling showed that the current thinking on law and order has reverted to a traditional Tory message. More prisons and tougher sentences are the refrain we hear time and time again.
I find it disappointing, not because I don't like those proposals. We obviously need more prison places and I'm all for tougher sentences for the worst crimes. There was a lot ideas which remain unsaid, which were apparent in Tory thinking a few years ago. I thought the 'Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime' was a great Tony Blair line, unfortunately nobody has pursued it and I was under the impression that the Tory party were genuinely interested in thinking out of the box on some issues.
This country needs a fresh approach on law and order. Here's a few ideas:
1) For a start, we need to acknowledge that the war on drugs has been lost. We need to look at legalisation, taxation and a vast increase in the number of rehabilitation centres. If we can take drug dealers off our streets and have drugs available over the counter from Boots the amount of crime in this country will plummet. The police would then be able to redirect resources to murder and violent crime.
2) In a similar vein, we need to legalise brothels and take the working girls off our streets.
3) We need to provide compulsory education in prison for all, only when people are able to take employment when leaving incarceration will the re-offending rate be reduced. It should be a condition of release that everyone can read and write (unless there are some medical reasons why not).
That's for starters. If Chris Grayling cannot deliver new thinking, he should be replaced by someone who can. Maybe David Davis again?
Squiffy.
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