Disrespect

The Prime Minister is right about one thing: ‘The liberty of the law-abiding citizen to be safe from fear comes first.’ It is indeed the first duty of the state to ensure that its citizens can live peacefully and go about their lawful business without fearing that they will be attacked or have their property stolen or destroyed by others. Mr Blair is also right to note that ‘the criminal justice system [is] failing people’, because it is failing to ensure that they can live without that fear. His intention to try to do something to improve that situation is laudable.

Unfortunately, his latest set of proposals — which go under the unlovely title of ‘The Respect Action Plan’ — is unlikely to have the desired effect. The proposals include a series of measures which aim to force parents to take responsibility for their errant and disruptive children. These include new powers to evict families from their homes and place them in new accommodation for periods of up to a year; to force them to attend classes in ‘anger management’ and ‘parenting skills’; to introduce ‘Baby antisocial behaviour orders’ (or ‘Basbos’) which will be targeted at children below the age of ten; and to increase from £80 to £100 the on-the-spot fines which the police can impose for offences such as spitting at people.