Letters to the Editor | 22 July 2006

Cameron on crime

From Oliver Letwin MP
Sir: Your leading article ‘Love isn’t all you need’ (15 July) misses the point of David Cameron’s speech on the causes of crime (indeed, it gives the impression that you did not read the speech very closely). David’s speech focused from the very beginning on the fear and suffering caused by crime and disorder; the no-go zones our town centres become on a Friday or Saturday night; and the damage done by vandalism and graffiti. But — more importantly — it looked beyond the usual hand-wringing and hasty gimmicks of Labour’s approach to consider how we solve these problems for the long term.

It is now 13 years since Tony Blair first pledged to be both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime. He has manifestly not been. But he was right to identify family breakdown, drugs, educational underachievement and other factors — all of which David discussed in his speech last week — as things that can become the seedbed of crime.