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.

Read more by or more about .
This entry was posted in Conference.
Advert

2 Comments

Post a Comment

Lib Dem Voice welcomes comments from everyone but we ask you to be polite, to be on topic and to be who you say you are. You can read our comments policy in full here. Please respect it and all readers of the site.

To have your photo next to your comment please signup your email address with Gravatar.

Your email is never published. Required fields are marked *

*
*
Please complete the name of this site, Liberal Democrat ...?

Advert

Recent Comments

  • PM
    @ Peter Davies, "The ECB did not end up responsible for Greek debt" ??? The ECB /EU bailed out Greece to the extent of €300 billion between...
  • expats
    Mathew Hulber......Doctors Deserve Fair Pay, Not Government Condemnation,,,,, I stand firmly with the doctors preparing to strike next month. They aren’t dema...
  • Slamdac
    @Alex am aware of that, and that is why they are paid well over £100,000 of taxpayer's money. In a time where we are asking taxpayers to pay more and more, ...
  • Peter Davies
    The more serious flaw in James Moore's argument is that it is not the 40% (42% on earned income) rate that "kills enterprise, cripples growth and exacerbates th...
  • Jana
    We have learned from experience that Freedom of Movement between a higher wage economy and a lower wage economy results in a movement of workers to the high wag...