Shadow Home Secretary David Davis has penned a short article for today’s News of the World entitled ‘Act Tough And Beat This Evil’ (click on the scan to enlarge and read).
The same messages are contained in an open letter he has just despatched to the Home Secretary:
"It is simply not good enough for the Government to say that gun crime is falling when on their own figures gun-related violence is up more than four-fold since 1998. If you don’t count the figures properly how can you correct the problem?
We are long past the time that the Government should have introduced a number of practical measures to tackle the scourge of gun-crime. Including Conservative proposals for a dedicated border police force to help stop trafficking in guns and drugs; better controls of internet sales of guns from abroad into the UK, with proper screening of all incoming packages; and more clear-sighted leadership on drugs policy ranging from the proper provision of residential rehab places through to effective enforcement of tough penalties.
This must be in addition to getting our police out on the streets to uphold the law and crack down on gang culture.
These are the immediate overdue actions. In the longer term it is absolutely essential that the Government get a grip on the fundamental causes of these crimes – the breakdown of parts of our society through the loss of stable family life, discipline in schools and the collapse of order on the streets."
The Conservatives really are rising to the occasion at the moment. David Cameron anticipated the public mood with his speech on Wednesday and Iain Duncan Smith’s article for Friday’s Daily Mail (welcomed here by Platform 10’s Fiona Melville) showed the extent to which he is a thought-leader in this whole area.
5pm update: I missed this important article by Michael Howard in The Sunday Telegraph.