Britain's Conservative Party leader on Monday tried to soften his party's tough law-and-order image, arguing that teenage miscreants need understanding as well as punishment.
Opposition leader David Cameron, who is striving to expand his support beyond the party's aging, small-town base, told an audience of youth workers that young people need a "lot more love" if they are to steer clear of crime.
Cameron said that "hoodies" -- teenagers in hooded sweat shirts who have become an emblem of social disorder in Britain -- were "a response to a problem, not a problem in itself."
"When you see a child walking down a street, hoodie up, head down, moody, swaggering, dominating the pavement -- think what has brought that child to that moment," Cameron said.
While society must punish those who breach the boundaries of acceptable behavior, he said, "inside those boundaries, we've got to show a lot more love."
Government ministers ridiculed the stance, which was immediately dubbed "hug a hoodie" by the press.
"We want to make our streets and communities safer for all, young and old alike," said Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker. "Cameron's empty idea seems to be `Let's hug a hoodie, whatever they've done.'"
But Penny Nicholls, director of strategy for the Children's Society charity, said that Cameron's remarks recognized that "current draconian measures to curb youth crime are not offering lasting solutions, only creating further problems."
Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who once vowed to be "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" -- has made the fight against so-called anti-social behavior a cornerstone of his domestic policy. His government has introduced "anti-social behavior orders" -- widely known as ASBOs -- that make it easier for local authorities to ban petty nuisances such as graffiti and excessive noise.
In doing so, Blair has moved into the tough anti-crime territory traditionally claimed by the Tories.
Cameron acknowledged that ASBOs and other forms of punishment had their place, but said they were only "short-term solutions."
"My aim is a society where we need these things less and less -- because the long-term answer to anti-social behavior is a pro-social society where we really get to grips with the long-term causes of crime," he said.
Cameron accused the government of taking a band-aid approach to crime.
"It's no good putting a sticking plaster on it. You've got to get to the bottom of the illness," he said.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
‘SHORTSIGHTED’: Using aid as leverage is punitive, would not be regarded well among Pacific Island nations and would further open the door for China, an academic said New Zealand has suspended millions of dollars in budget funding to the Cook Islands, it said yesterday, as the relationship between the two constitutionally linked countries continues to deteriorate amid the island group’s deepening ties with China. A spokesperson for New Zealand Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters said in a statement that New Zealand early this month decided to suspend payment of NZ$18.2 million (US$11 million) in core sector support funding for this year and next year as it “relies on a high trust bilateral relationship.” New Zealand and Australia have become increasingly cautious about China’s growing presence in the Pacific
RSS