Gordon’s getting a bit anti-social

By Rowenna Davis

Nice speech Gordon. But why do you want to ruin such a progressive set of policies with an outdated return to the antisocial behaviour agenda?

The PM’s speech this afternoon was littered with inflamatory rhetoric on “teenage tearaways” and populist “action squads” designed to “crack down on estates”. Parents of kids engaged in anti-social behaviour will be forced to attend mandatory parenting classes or risk losing their benefits (which parents of badly behaved middle class kids can presumably afford to skip?) Meanwhile teenage mums will be put into networked “supervised homes” on the illogical assumption that taking away independent housing from young mums will actually make them more independent.

Brown was right to say that the government should work for the hardworking majority and not the few. But that mustn’t slip into bullying the few to satisfy the bloodlust of the majority.

What makes these reactionary measures even sadder is that they come alongside what is otherwise an incredibly progressive agenda for young people and their familes. In the same breath, Brown also announced free care for two year olds, increased spending on education, 10,000 new internships and a commitment to increase child benefit every year Labour stays in power. Next to these policies, the anti-social behaviour agenda seems grim and inconsistent.

Moreover, the groups Brown’s planning to clamp down upon – residents in estates, teenage mums, struggling families – are going to be hit harder than most by these policies, because they are the people who can’t afford an alternative.

This is tantamount to state bullying, and nothing – not even a populist rebound in the polls – can justfiy it.