Of course, since writing this, the Liberal Democra...

2010-07-29T21:52:58.742+01:00

Of course, since writing this, the Liberal Democrats predictably have claimed credit for influencing the change, although I still doubt they've had any real impact whatsoever.

It's not often though when it comes to policies on crime that a government turns out to be more liberal than it suggested it would be prior to being elected; I was amazed a few weeks back when a Tory on Question Time admitted that Labour had been tough on crime, despite claiming the complete opposite previously. Certainly this has something to do with it being May and co in charge rather than Grayling and pals (indeed, it's alleged that it was Rebekah Wade's doing that resulted in Dominic Grieve being moved from shadow foreign sec after he made the mistake of criticising the Sun's coverage of crime to her face) yet I still think it's partially down to it being early days more than anything and that at the moment the press isn't screaming blue murder at how lenient they're currently being. Today's Sun editorial is even broadly supportive, having previously accused Labour of never going anywhere near far enough.

If ASBOs were to be abolished, it would be something to celebrate; if anything though, these new alternative sanctions might be worse in that they'll have less of a legal basis and constructed in an ad-hoc manner. We shall have to wait and see.

A bit ungenerous, I think. There are two genuine s...

2010-07-29T11:14:06.469+01:00

A bit ungenerous, I think. There are two genuine shifts going on here. Firstly, there's already been a move away from ASBOs to more preventive measures like acceptable behaviour contracts, & an accompanying devolution of effective power to housing associations; in that respect May is just being opportunistic and putting a Tory seal of approval on a change that happened quietly under Labour. But it's also true, although less important, that May's instincts (like Clarke's) are more liberal than Blunkett's or Blair's: they had a vision of respectable working-class communities and tapped into a deep and scary vein of working-class authoritarianism in the cause of achieving it.

May, like Clarke, doesn't really give a monkey's about working-class communities, so she doesn't have that temptation. And the job of policing the areas where they vote Tory can actually be done on the cheap - less crime to be policed and more volunteers and busybodies to draw on.

This means that the kind of people who demand ASBOs aren't going to be listened to, but I don't think that's such a bad thing. People who don't have much power over their own lives will always say that the kids are running wild, the streets are out of control and somebody else needs to be made to suffer. The trick is to address their grievances, not their compensatory fantasies. The real problem is that that's not going to happen either under the Tories.

Comments on Obsolete: The end for ASBOs, again.

Of course, since writing this, the Liberal Democra...

A bit ungenerous, I think. There are two genuine s...