Crime and Punishment (Except if your a Lib Dem!)

My son came to work with me today. He is 5 and we do this a couple of days a year. Changes the office actually although he insists on a long lunch!!

We have had quite a lot from the Conservatives on local crime in the last few days.

We firstly had Theresa May announcing the launch of the Conservative Urban Alliance. Now that we are by far the largest, and growing, leaders of local government we are well placed to really tackle the issues of graffiti, vandalism and crime. I was staggered to read that fly tipping has rocketed by 43% in the past two years. They also have good examples of Conservative Councils restoring respect on the streets and launching new initiatives such as Westminster's Civic Renewal Scheme.

We also had Tim Yeo arguing for our policies to crack down on the yob and drink culture and illustrating how crime has boomed under Labour. Just look at the crazy increases in crime we have seen on the railways - 14% increase in violent crime and a 12% increase in sexual assaults

From the Lib Dems we have had another announcement of them going soft on crime.

Apparently the BBC is reporting the Lib Dems are considering a new policy to decriminalise crime for those under 14. They also want offenders to 'pay back' by doing work chosen by local people, face to face meetings between offenders and victims and reparation orders for adults. Of course, as the BBC points out, the children who killed Jamie Bulger were 10! They would not have gone to court. According to the Lib Dems Social Services should have dealt with them. I leave it to readers to decide whether Social Service are the right people to look after murderers, even at 10? But what happened to giving them a fair trial to demonstrate they actually did it because if this is 'decriminalisation' then trials are out!!

This whole thing is absurd and I know will anger many who believe that in fact what child criminals need is not being soft and cuddly but to understand the severity of their crimes. Where is the evidence that being soft on criminals has ever stopped re-offending because not imprisoning burglars is also a Lib Dem policy?

But the really odd thing is this issue of age. On the one hand we have the Lib Dems saying they do not want to criminalise those under 14 and yet they are also desperately keen for those of 16 to watch and participate in pornography - another awful Lib Dem policy.

I wonder if there is any connection between equalising these ages to conform with Europe as this was another issue the Lib Dem have been on about during the last week saying "we cannot influence EU law from the sidelines". If equalising laws mean the UK accepting you cannot be a criminal till your 14 (who ever you burgle or murder) then there are many who will say UKIP has a point! No wonder the Lib Dems do not talk too much to the public about their policy on Europe.