Thursday 26 June 2003

More of the same

In today's Edinburgh Evening News a Ms Margaret Curran has written this article about Scotland's juvenile crime problem:
Anti-social behaviour makes people’s lives a misery. Every day, hundreds of Scots are subjected to unacceptable behaviour that blights their lives, undermines families, degrades their environment, drags down communities and leads to more serious crime.

In cities, towns and villages across Scotland people feel powerless to stand up to the few who cause most of the trouble. If they do take a stand, they may be threatened or feel their concerns are simply being ignored. This cannot be tolerated any longer.

Indeed, it shouldn't be tolerated any longer. But who is this Ms Curran? Oh dear; the News tells us that she is "Minister for Communities" - in the very same Scottish government that has presided over the huge increase in juvenile crime. Ms Curran's Labour party bears responsibility for the crime wave, which is caused by the creation of a dependency class accompanied by an unwillingness to make criminals responsible for compensating victims as well as paying for the cost of their capture and trial. I predict that juvenile crime will continue to rise. Unless, of course, it is spun out of existence.