Police should reduce fear, not create terror
Liberal Democrat Home Affairs Spokesperson Ed Davey has criticised Home Secretary Priti Patel as “out of touch” for her comments about the police making people “literally feel terror”.
Responding to Priti Patel’s interview with the Daily Mail, Ed Davey said:
The Liberal Democrats want many more police so they can catch criminals, prevent crime in the first place and work in our communities to help people feel safer – and it’s a shame Priti Patel didn’t back our campaign for more police these last four years.
Yet Priti Patel’s notion that making people terrified of the police will cut crime shows just how out of touch she is with what’s leading some young people into crime in the first place.
So often young people say they carry knives because they are afraid of other young people in gangs. We need more police so these young people can feel less afraid as they now trust the police to be there, not because the police add to their fears.
PM’s NHS pledge not worth the paper it’s written on
Responding to the Prime Minister’s annoucement of NHS funding, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesperson Judith Jolly said:
When a no-deal Brexit hits government finances by an eye watering £90bn, Boris Johnson’s pledge will not be worth the paper it’s written on.
The Conservatives have under-funded social care to the point of crisis, they have failed to address a critical staffing shortage while children’s mental health services are almost non-existent.
The NHS is too important to people’s lives to be neglected. The Liberal Democrats are committed to transformational front line funding by stopping Brexit and investing a penny on income tax into the NHS.
Corbyn must recognise any Brexit will be disastrous or step down
Responding to Labour’s Jonathan Ashworth claiming on Ridge on Sunday that his party will “work to stop” a no deal Brexit, Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said:
No matter the Brexit, any Brexit would be disastrous for the NHS, jobs and the environment.
Swapping a no-deal Tory Brexit for a Labour Brexit won’t give hope to anyone concerned about their livelihoods.
Ultimately, we can end all the uncertainities by staying in the EU with a People’s Vote. It’s time Corbyn unequivocally joined that campaign or step down and let others do what is right.
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4 Comments
Ed is right to criticise, and who could resist that with Pritti ‘Golan Heights’ Patel now in office? But “out of touch”?
I’m afraid the evidence is that she is playing the same game as the Donald, and she is very much ‘in touch’ with the voters she is trying to reach. Those who crave the smack of firm government (how we laughed when that phrase cropped up in 1990 in The House of Cards – but as Nigel Farage would say, we’re not laughing now) delight to hear such things, as they do when she talks about capital punishment.
The difficult task we have is in persuading those people that we need to tackle the root causes of violent crime, not invest in a more effective sticking plaster. The root causes are many, but one of the fundamental problems is young people who feel they have no stake in society. Poverty, inadequate schooling, gang culture, the drug economy, the growing wealth and income gaps, uninspiring politicians, alienating social media, news-by-phone headlines, Nigel Farage, unending wars abroad and many other things contribute. Not enough Police is about the last thing we ought to be worrying about.
New Home Secretary Priti Patel also said that she is in favour of capital punishment.
We should not base our arguments on the miscarriages of justice, important as they have been historically, because, as we see in the USA, those in favour will try to meet the criteria set.
On principle: judicial execution is murder and the state has no right to do it.
Roy Jenkins was Home Secretary twice. His predecessor did not kill anyone.
In the Commons this is a matter of individual conscience Margaret Thatcher wanted to appoint a Home Secretary who was in favour and voted in favour herself. When John Major was PM he sent the Home Secretary to the Lords (causing a by-election in Ribble Valley). The Liberal Democrat News admitted that one of our MPs had voted in favour. He has retired from the Commons and is not in any other parliamentary house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyril_Smith.
5th Aug ’19 – 9:17am
I spoke along these lines at a meeting of the Liberal International in Paris with a British MP in the chair.
I referred to the policy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amnesty_International and to the Home Secretary at the time (Douglas Hurd) who spoke and voted against judicial execution while the Prime Minister voted in favour.
The motion was carried overwhelmingly when the votes were counted on the Saturday.
I would add that it is wrong to say that the USA supports this policy. The USA is federal and most of the executions happen in Texas. Other US states have a variety of policies.
when the Prison Service was in the Home Office I served in the Life Sentence Review Section whose senior officer told us that the threat of punishment does not deter. Our casework shoed that she was right.
The trial of Radko Mladic (BBC4 April first) is factual. It is about an army general in the former Yugoslavia. He had a fair trial, lasting several years. He was acquitted of one charge of genocide. he was convicted on another and of other offences. He was sentenced to life imprisonment (the equivalent in the UK of whole life).
Please don’t have nightmares.
It becomes irrelevant what Jeremy Corbyn might or might not do if Boris Johnson’s intention is to subvert parliament and leave the eu without a deal, even during a General Election. I don’t really think he would do that as it is so absurd that he’d lose all media and many of his own MPs support. Common sense dictates that if a GE is in progress, all major decisions must await its result unless we are in an emergency situation such as war time.