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Kemi Badenoch, leader of the UK Conservative Party, has criticised the Labour government’s approach to tackling crime, arguing that in Nigeria, young people who break the law face clear consequences.
She said Britain has convinced itself that crime, idleness and bad behaviour should be explained away rather than firmly dealt with, turning the state into what she described as everyone’s “therapist, careers adviser or youth worker.”
According to Badenoch:
“All of us were shocked by the phone footage of children smashing up shops in broad daylight, stealing, laughing, filming themselves as though it were a game.
“Some commentators immediately reached for a racial explanation, but that was to miss the point completely.
“While the majority of young looters in Clapham, south London, seemed to have Caribbean or African heritage, the fact is that children in Lagos and Nairobi do not behave that way.
“Why? Because in Nigeria and Kenya the boundaries are clear and actions have consequences. Parents, communities and authorities do not wring their hands or look the other way. It’s a lesson we’ve forgotten here.
“We didn’t get here overnight. For years, there’s been a drip, drip, drip of institutional and cultural change, not least the belief that social programmes matter more than tough enforcement in maintaining discipline. I profoundly disagree.”
Police under strain
She added: “It’s no wonder the police are at the end of their tether. Last year, almost 4,500 officers quit before they had completed their probation. Walking a beat in Croydon last month, I asked the sergeant escorting me about his main frustration.
“His reply echoed the feelings of my local officers in Essex. They are tired of arresting the same people week in, week out, only to see them get off scot-free or be released just a few weeks later.
“There is a way forward, of course, and it’s called enforcement. It’s not as if there’s a shortage of rules in Britain; it’s the failure to apply them that’s the problem.”
