Cause and no effect

Labour forgets lesson of last 30 years by getting tough on crime

NOW I’m not one to bemoan anyone else’s work, particularly at this time of year when your mind is drifting to holidays and there are French Martinis to be drunk.

But there was news put out by Labour that was really bad.

It was a press release about the country being ravaged by fire and had some really scary stats – 440 wildfires so far this year, 21% of firefighters cut since 2010, and exceptional levels of risk.

It’s a serious matter, covering a range of issues from climate change to austerity.

But then came a quote from Shadow Paymaster General Fleur Anderson who said: “Conservative ministers have put the smoke alarm on snooze for far too long.”

Bothering

Now maybe I’ve missed something here, and if I have I will apologise unreservedly, but do smoke alarms really have snooze buttons?

I mean, why would a smoke alarm have a snooze button? Pointless, right? In fact, beyond pointless.

Who would be alerted to a fire and then go, “You know what, I need another seven minutes’ kip.”?

Anyways. It has been bothering me all week. Apologies and thank you for your patience.

The other thing that bothered me, and apologies again, was the Shadow Justice Secretary responding to the dismal burglary clear-up rate: “It’s the Conservatives, they’ve gone absolutely soft on crime.”

If it’s an indication of the direction Labour is going to take it’s not particularly encouraging. Because accusing Tories of going soft on crime can only lead to the inevitable “we’re going to be tough on crime”.

And it doesn’t mean much. I kind of got the proper gist of it when Tony Blair unveiled “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime” almost 30 years ago.

In 1993 the then-shadow Home Secretary said: “If we can’t break new ground in this area, start doing away with this notion that somehow if you talk about the underlying causes of crime, you’re excusing crime, then we will fail and we’ll carry on failing in circumstances where I don’t believe there’s any bigger social issue facing our country.”

That is, as I say, getting on for 30 years ago. Since then successive governments have failed to really tackle the causes of crime.

I had a conversation on the subject a while ago with a Labour MP.

“The thing is,” he told me, “Voters don’t care. It’s like the climate, like homelessness. Prisons are like that.

“They’re issues, of course they are, but do voters really bother? It’s a hard conversation to have with them.”

You know though, I do think voters care. And we don’t mind a hard conversation.

Prison hasn’t been working for a long time thanks to under-funding and all the rest of it.

But more than that, the idea of what prison is for, the whole idea we have of crime and justice, will have to change.

Getting tough will only get you so far. Criminals who leave prison with accommodation and a bank account are up to 10 times less likely to reoffend. Start with that.