Blunkett way is not working say Lib Dems
Delegates at the Liberal Democrat annual conference today supported a more “civilised and effective” approach to punishing criminals, voting for a motion calling for more community sentences and drug treatment programmes.
Norman Lamb, MP for Norfolk North, said if the Lib Dems wanted to be a prospective party of government, it had to convince the public it could be trusted to deal with crime. This meant destroying the “myth” that it was soft on crime. The current re-offending rates were evidence that “the Blunkett way” was not working he said.
All speakers on the motion were at pains to emphasise that the party was not being “soft on crime”.
Speaking in support, Baroness Walmsley, the Lib Dem deputy home affairs spokeswoman in the House of Lords, said governments had a duty to tackle crime in the most effective manner possible. Prime Minister Tony Blair had vowed to be “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”, but had in fact been tough on the causers of crime, she added.
Labour had also failed to deal with people’s fear of crime or with serial offenders. Too often, she said, criminals were sent to overcrowded prisons where they picked up a drug habit and learnt how to commit more crimes.
She quoted a statement by Prison Reform Trust director Juliet Lyons that being tough on crime with longer sentences was also being tough on victims because it increased re-offending. 59 per cent of prisoners re-offended within two years of releases – rising to 70 per cent for young offenders.
She denied the Lib Dems were soft on offenders, saying community sentences were proven to work as they addressed the root causes of crime and were not an “easy ride”.
And calling for a more “civilised and effective approach”, she said the age of criminal responsibility should be raised to 13 from the current age of 10.
Lorely Burt, the Lib Dem PPC for Solihull, spoke about the value of community sentences and they way they made offenders see things from the victim’s point of view. They could also bring healing and “take away the bitter taste of fear”. And if offenders must be incarcerated, education programmes must be increased to give them the skills to make a better life.
Summing up, Lord McNally, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesman in the House of Lords, said the public’s perceptions and fear of crime were “very real” but had been exacerbated by the popular media and the other main parties. He urged the party to hold their nerve and argue the case against more populist attacks. Quoting a fellow Lib Dem peer, he said: “If prisons really worked, surely we would be building more of them, not less of them.”
There were no speakers against the proposal, and the motion was carried unanimously.
