There is nothing ‘populist’ about cracking down hard on crime
‘Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.” Tony Blair’s mantra was aimed at placating anger over rising criminality while reassuring the liberal intelligentsia whose good opinion he wanted to retain. It was a balancing act David Cameron attempted to imitate as he invited us to “hug a hoodie”. Under Theresa May, the Tories drifted even further away from their once-hawkish reputation on law and order. But fewer police on the streets, overcrowded and drug-infested prisons, a failing parole system and record levels of knife crime have all combined to create a feeling of insecurity.
It is this insecurity that Boris Johnson’s Government is seeking to address and Priti Patel as Home Secretary has left us in no doubt about the direction of travel. “We are coming after you” is her message to criminals, and yesterday’s Queen’s Speech filled in the detail of previously sketched out plans.
Violent and sex offenders will face longer sentences. The horrific consequences of releasing prisoners only half way through their sentences were revealed by this newspaper last week: almost a fifth of all murders are committed by prisoners on parole who have been let out of jail early. Under the Government’s proposed reform, anyone jailed for four years or more will have to serve at least two-thirds of their sentence before they can be released.
Further measures include widening the category of murders for which life sentences will be applicable. Tackling concern about foreign offenders, anyone breaching a deportation order will serve years – rather than weeks – before being released again. The Government also wants to demonstrate its solidarity with the police by proposing a police covenant, similar to the Military Covenant.
The Government’s message to the public is clear: we understand why you have lost faith in law enforcement, we share your anger at a system that allows convicted murderers to kill again and we intend to meet your concerns and rebuild your faith in British justice.
Predictably the cry has gone up from the bleeding heart liberals, Labour and their fellow travellers in the media, that this “crackdown on crime” is a “populist” measure designed to win the general election that cannot be far away.
Francis Crook of the Howard League for Penal Reform labelled the new proposals “the politics of the lynch mob” which will “take hope away” from prisoners. Channelling Blair, Harry Fletcher, from probation union Napo, said: “The Government must tackle the causes of anti-social and criminal behaviour and resist the temptation to flag populist measures.” Diane Abbott dismissed the Government’s programme as a “pre-election party political broadcast which the Government has no means to deliver.”
Patel must be delighted with these reactions. Among the liberal intelligentsia, “populist” has become a term of abuse. But Johnson’s Government, to its credit, sees no conflict between a policy that is popular and a policy that is right. When criminals on early release commit murder, when police officers are killed on duty and children knifed on the streets, the Government’s duty is not to fret for the welfare of the murderers, but to protect the public. And if the Opposition will neither allow the Government to put its reforms into action nor hold an election, it must face the day of reckoning when the public is finally allowed to have a say.