Brian Dash told the Conference in Oxford that he
is “Fed up with hearing accusations that the Liberal
Democrats are soft on crime. That’s absolute nonsense!” He
went on to say “It isn’t about hard or soft. It’s
about effective or ineffective. I’ll
take no lessons from the Tories who presided over a continuous
increase in violent crimebetween1979 and 1997 of 168%. Labour,
despite frantic legislation and record prison population
have a rise in violent and gun crime so they can’t
talk either!.”
Brian explained that Liberal Democrats
have tough policies to address re-offending. Well over half the prisoners re-offend
within 2 years of release. Half
of our prisoners have a reading age of 11, innumeracy
and writing is even worse. Liberal Democrats will require those
prisoners to attend classes to achieve a level of education
which might just enable them to earn an honest living.
Addressing the issue of antisocial
behaviour and vandalism Brian told the conference,”I
get really angry when I see a pensioner’s fence
or wall damaged because I know they will struggle to
pay for a repair. I think that the vandals, when caught
should be made either to repair it or to pay for the
repair.” |