Crime and Punishment
Normal service has resumed at Westminster.
After a brief period of behaving themselves - and refusing to exploit every situation for party advantage - our politicians are back to what they know best - Punch and Judy politics.
Instead of finding areas of agreement and common ground - the party machines take over - driven on by interest groups and partisan supporters in the press.
So I thought I'd turn my mind to all the looting and violence of recent days - by asking myself a few questions and setting out a few thoughts.
Who took part in the riots - and what was their motivation?
Now that seems to me to be a good place to start - and here are at least some of the groups involved.
Career criminals will already be well-known to the police - as will those in organised gangs - and the best approach may well be more 'stick' than 'carrot' - without losing the will to help people turn their lives around - if they really want to help themselves.
Older teenagers - without jobs and without prospects - present a different kind of challenge and are probably more open to persuasion and reason - although as any parent knows teenagers can be very manipulative.
So there's a need for a some honesty and plain speaking - why do so many leave school with such poor literacy, numeracy and all-round life skills?
The younger children are probably small in number - but present perhaps the biggest challenge - because any 11 year old caught out rioting at night is a victim of neglect - and there must be a strong argument for focusing on the parenting and care of these children.
The opportunist thieves - those in work and from stable backgrounds - might well end up in jail - but by and large I would send only the worst offenders to prison - the cases involving violence and/or the destruction of property.
Wherever possible it would be better to make people pay restitution for their crimes - and to meet face-to-face with some of their victims - whose lives they have turned upside down.
After a brief period of behaving themselves - and refusing to exploit every situation for party advantage - our politicians are back to what they know best - Punch and Judy politics.
Instead of finding areas of agreement and common ground - the party machines take over - driven on by interest groups and partisan supporters in the press.
So I thought I'd turn my mind to all the looting and violence of recent days - by asking myself a few questions and setting out a few thoughts.
Who took part in the riots - and what was their motivation?
Now that seems to me to be a good place to start - and here are at least some of the groups involved.
- Organised criminals
- Organised and often violent gangs
- Groups of older teenagers - out for a thrill
- Groups of schoolchildren - some very young
- People in jobs and from relatively stable backgrounds
Career criminals will already be well-known to the police - as will those in organised gangs - and the best approach may well be more 'stick' than 'carrot' - without losing the will to help people turn their lives around - if they really want to help themselves.
Older teenagers - without jobs and without prospects - present a different kind of challenge and are probably more open to persuasion and reason - although as any parent knows teenagers can be very manipulative.
So there's a need for a some honesty and plain speaking - why do so many leave school with such poor literacy, numeracy and all-round life skills?
The younger children are probably small in number - but present perhaps the biggest challenge - because any 11 year old caught out rioting at night is a victim of neglect - and there must be a strong argument for focusing on the parenting and care of these children.
The opportunist thieves - those in work and from stable backgrounds - might well end up in jail - but by and large I would send only the worst offenders to prison - the cases involving violence and/or the destruction of property.
Wherever possible it would be better to make people pay restitution for their crimes - and to meet face-to-face with some of their victims - whose lives they have turned upside down.
