Safer Under Labour?

11.00.00am GMT Fri 26th Nov 2004

Labour's claim this week that the British people are safer under Labour will strike a hollow chord with many people in Bracknell - the message that from neighbourhood safety through to global geo-politics Labour has the answer is not borne out by the evidence.

Labour and their principal cheerleaders, the Tories, re-asserted their faith in top-down control - making our lives better by relieving us of our civil liberties. Labour no longer makes the effort to tackle the causes of many of our problems - the prisons are overcrowded, re-offending rates especially for young people average 80% - that most of these prisoners are illiterate and innumerate and often suffer from drug and alcohol addiction seems to be a low priority for Labour and Tory alike to tackle. If prison alone works why do we need to build so many more of them?

Neighbourhood problems are rarely solved by new laws from the Home Office but through community action with local people working with the police and other agencies. The Lib Dems want to see the money Labour want to spend on ID cards to be spent on 10,000 more police and on the intelligence services, which we believe will have a greater effect on reducing crime and improving security without diminishing our hard won civil liberties.

As for the wider terrorist threat: many would argue that Blair's solo strategy in Iraq has not made Britain safer. There is clearly a danger from terrorism today, made all too clear by the bombing in Madrid. We have faced this risk before from the IRA; the problem now is that when Blair talks of threats many people no longer trust his judgement on this issue. This is an unsustainable position and Blair should recognise this and resign now.