Alix Mortimer

Conference: Chris Huhne MP

By | Tue 16th September 2008 - 6:42 pm

A barnstormer of a speech from Chris Huhne this morning as he dealt with his own portfolio and then segued into a full-out attack on the Tories. He was so impressive I have even forgiven him for backing into me in full Chris-gesture mode causing me to spill coffee all down myself.

Worth a good long quote:

…take David Cameron. He knows that you can get four years in jail for just carrying a knife, but he thinks that judges tiptoe around knife crime. So he wants to send every knife carrier to prison automatically.

Just a small problem. If he did, the prison population would nearly quadruple. The basic rate of income tax would go up by a penny in the pound.

Oh, and another problem. The evidence shows it wouldn’t work.

What works is visible policing to reassure people they do not need to carry a knife. Intelligence led stop and search of hot spots to catch knife carriers. Working with the local community to gather leads and encourage witnesses. Telling it how it is in schools and colleges. Taking back control of the streets.

But Labour and the Tories are addicted to punishment posturing, and that means legislative diarrhoea as a substitute for enforcing the law that we have. In their first decade in government, Labour’s new legislation takes the same amount of shelf space as 200 copies of War and Peace.

“A shadow minister who runs to time, absolutely amazing,” said the Chair approvingly, when Chris’ minute-plus of applause finally dried up.

The full speech can be viewed on the Beeb here.

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