Tories on Young Criminals 1984

Debate with Conservative Backbench John Wheeler in July 1984. John Wheeler was elected in 1979 with a narrow majority of 106 votes. One of the policies of the then Conservative government was the detention of young offenders in secure units with quasi-military discipline - a popular policy known as "short sharp shock" (a Guilbert and Sullivan reference) by the then home secretary Willie Whitelaw. There had been a programme of extra prison building and improvements in police pay and conditions. Unfortunately the get tough policy backfired and was probably partly responsible for the riots in 1981 - 2 years after the Conservatives came to power (sound familiar?). By 1984 questions were starting to be asked about the cost of this innefective approach of detaining young people as it seemed to be costing a lot - but with no (or little) positive benifit. " Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." (George Santayana)

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News & Politics

Tags:

• riots
• Whitelaw
• Thatcher
• Conservative