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Criminal Justice

Although I am always willing to try to help hon. Members, especially on the Opposition Benches, I will observe the proprieties of allowing chief constables to make their own decisions on those matters—unless the issue is of such strategic and national importance that the hon. Gentleman thinks that I would legitimately be entitled to intervene. I am glad that we agree on one thing. Where there are young thugs—this does not apply to the vast majority of young people, who are as unenamoured of yobs and thugs as the rest of population—hugs do not always provide a way of tackling them. I am glad that he is with our side of the House on that. I thought for a moment that he was going to add shouting ““Yo!”” to a yob, or something of that nature, to the idea of hugging a hoodie. I am glad that he refrained from doing so.