Battleangel

And the myth of the over-lenient judiciary. I was baffled the other day as I saw Tony Blair blasting the Tory party over allegedly being too soft on crime. “Voting soft in Parliament” as he put it. You know something has gone terribly wrong when a supposedly social democratic party is accusing conservatives of being soft on crime. And boasts of getting tough and shelving rehabilitation.

The new measures lauded by Blair, adding to his already repressive repertoire, are frankly overbearing and draconian.

Yet, despite the avalanche of justice bills, sentencing acts, coercive changes to evidential rules, preventive detention measures and antisocial behaviour orders, even more “tougher measures” are promised. Tony Blair declared at last week’s press conference that existing measures to crack down on crime were insufficient.

Compare this tabloid rant with a speech by Blair a decade ago, where in opposition he spoke of the complex and deep economic and social roots of crime [...]