Gordon Brown has stated that: “We will take any legislative measures that are necessary to deal with knife crime in our country”. And to add to the preemptive legislative strike on knife crime, which has been argued has gone beyond “epidemic” proportions, the Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) is clammering to increase prison sentences for knife crimes, Lord Phillips (current Chair of the SGC and Lord Chief Justice) says:
“You can get a shorter-term situation where a particular type of offence suddenly becomes prevalent, or is shown to be prevalent, which calls for a faster response than the SGC is capable of.”
This seems to be a moral panic spiralling out of control and laws made because of these moral panics.
Many young people carry a knife out of safety:
“If someone has been a victim of crime, they might carry a weapon because they feel unsafe. They don’t inherently want to stab someone; it’s just that the knife in the pocket makes them feel secure. The majority of children are carrying pen-knives, not machetes,”
As Enver Solomon (deputy director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies) further states that instead of installing metal detectors in schools the government needs to tackle the social conditions such as deprivation and inequalities. Many of these young people have limited choices. Further legislation will only stigmatise and vilify mainly young people from working class areas (and racist stop and search laws that only serve to criminalise black people). It may seem “street cred” to carry a knife but this macho outlook displays a deeper sense of isolation, powerlessness and insecurity that reflects the position many young people face in this society. But the establishment yell and shriek for further legislation and crackdown.
This will deepen the fear and cause misguided belief that we are unsafe and need further protection, which is based on the right-wing populism that feeds both into the media but also the NL authoritarian agenda.
But at the core of NL’s ideology is its attacks on the poor and you only have to look at the changes to welfare reform. The language is all about the “feckless poor” and the “workshy”. The negative perception has been perpetuated by NL along with the dividing line between “deserving/undeserving poor”. In other words, pitching working class people against each other.
The welfare state was a way of supporting people from falling through the cracks of society. But with the neo-liberal agenda of NL with its full throttle determination in privatising the welfare state spotlighting the poor and the culture of dependency. The icing on the cake is the use of voice risk analysis on claimants to weed out the liars and cheats! James Purnell in his interview with the Times, comes from a standpoint that claimants are dishonest. And regurgitates the myths associated with the unemployed.
But it is all about risk…as we live in a climate that is all about protecting us from the heightened fears. It is not whether you are guilty that matters. It is whether you are viewed as a risk. To the New Labour way of thinking bothering with checking evidence of guilt or innocence is old fashioned and inefficient. Once a risk is perceived (it does not have to be real) it must be acted upon. Thus the need for ASBO’s, control orders and 42 days detention powers.
We are looking straight at the cold tyrannical heart of new labour ideology.
Posted by harpymarx 
