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Early Intervention

Last year's riots were unprecedented in their violence and in the damage done to our society. We saw headlines such as ““Mob Rule”” and ““Flaming Morons””. I hope never to see such things again. We owe a debt of gratitude to the police, who had to clear up under such difficult circumstances. No one made those young people loot and steal and cause so much damage and fear, and there can be no excuse. The punishments meted out were right and I fully support them, but since those days the headlines have changed. We are not talking about the riots and the problems caused by those people, but asking why they did it. What caused that disorder? Is it moral decline, that the young have no respect, the benefit society or something more fundamental? I want to prevent that type of appalling activity from becoming the norm in Britain or any other society, as I am sure all hon. Members do. To do that, we need to look seriously at prevention. I want to put the case that prevention is not just kinder than cure but incredibly cheaper.