liberal reforms

"it is "pointless to persist with the conventional responses to the increase in crime. More police, more prisons and more effective judicial procedures are clearly not working, except in so far as they satisfy a patent public thirst for retribution.""
from a book written by Tory MP Alan Duncan.

I don't like sticking huge quotes in here, but it's such good and interesting stuff. Not sure if any of this will make it's way through to being policy, but it's very encouraging that they are willing to go against the grain.
"They add that "deterrence is an increasingly empty threat, and nobody seriously believes that a spell in prison is capable of reforming or rehabilitating the criminal character. A criminal record only makes it harder to re-enter normal civilian life, turning a significant minority of people into career criminals and so making crime an even more intractable problem"."


let's hope that liberalism wins the day and these are the sorts of things we can expect from Duncan and the new Tories.
Cameron is, apparently, a libertarian, so let's hope he puts his money where his mouth is:

"The sensible solution, they say, is not to treat the symptoms of crime but the causes, including the "demoralised condition of young people in many inner cities today" and - perhaps to the relief of rightwingers worried where all this is heading - "the lack of any culture of ... self-improvement in those parts of society where the majority of people are dependent on state handouts".

The chapter on all this was in the hardback version, but mysteriously disappeared from the paperback version. However, there is a link to it on his website if you want to read more.

In the same book, Duncan famously argued for the legalisation - or at least the decriminalisation - of drugs, which isn't Tory policy. The assumption that prison doesn't work and only makes crime worse isn't likely to be in the Tory manifesto either. It's a long time since the Conservatives have wanted us to hug hoodies, but it's interesting to know where Duncan's sympathies really lie, nonetheless."