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 Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg with children at Islington Ecology Centre |
‘Face court or your victims’ choice in youth crime fight
Lib Dem chief: To beat knife menace we must break fear cycle
MINOR offenders should be judged by their victims rather than sent to prison, according to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, who toured Islington on Friday.
Mr Clegg’s comments on how to beat youth crime came during his first visit to Islington in his new role as party leader.
He began his day with a visit to Islington Ecology Centre in Drayton Park, and went on to a private meeting with young people from Shaftesbury Leaving Care Centre, in Highbury New Park, to discuss their concerns about crime and safety.
He also threw his support behind Lib Dem prospective parliamentary candidate Bridget Fox’s campaign to save Essex Road post office from closure.
When asked about youth crime in Islington, following the killings of Martin Dinnegan and Nassirudeen Osawe last year, he said: “No doubt things can be done to make sure people who carry knives and blades have those taken away from them and are charged.
“There’s a much deeper problem. The children say they carry knives and blades to primarily defend themselves. That’s really dangerous. We have to somehow break the cycle of fear. There’s lots of very unglamorous work to be done on seriously engaging young children.”
He believes dealing with minor crimes in a community justice court can help stop offenders going on to commit more serious offences. “We need to look radically at the way criminal justice works,” Mr Clegg said. “Children in trouble immediately get sucked up in the criminal justice system.
“I’d like to see ways of involving children. The Liberal Democrats set up the country’s first community justice court. If you’re involved in vandalism the police say you can either go to court or you can go to the panel and explain yourself to the victims of the crime and together decide the way forward. We have got to give a role for victims and a role for the community.”
He praised Islington’s pioneering work in the use of acceptable behaviour contracts, which he said were now being adopted across the country. “I’ve no problem with the principle that the penalty for carrying an offensive weapon should be severe but let’s be clear: hitting people with sanctions for carrying a fatal weapon is only part of the solution,” Mr Clegg said.
Stopping to talk to children at the ecology centre, he praised the Lib Dem-controlled Town Hall for pioneering a carbon pledge scheme, which encourages residents to cut emissions by 15 per cent.
He said: “It’s fantastic. I’m really pleased it’s a Lib Dem centre in Islington which has pioneered this. This centre plays a vital role in inspiring young children and this really catches their imagination.
“The council has been very imaginative, groundbreaking, being the first council in the country to set up a clear ambition that businesses and households should be reducing their own emissions by 15 per cent.
“I don’t think it works to ask families and households to change their behaviour unless they see government and local authorities are doing their bit, unless they see that people in power are setting an example.”
Before leaving to visit Essex Road post office, he stressed how he had campaigned for years against branch closures.
“The government has drawn up a list – completely arbitrarily – with no regard for the way in which closures hit the vulnerable and the elderly, who rely on the post office for services in the way that others do not and do not have the wherewithal to rely on online services,” he said. “It’s a classic example of out-of-touch central government changes.” |
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