Government to abolish crime

It has been announced that the government is to abolish crime. ‘Tony Blair will today make the provocative claim that Labour's new five-year crime plan heralds "the end of the 1960s liberal consensus on law and order" by putting the values of the law-abiding majority at the centre of the criminal justice system.’  A few of the familiar clichés about Britain’s binge drinking culture and the trendy 1960s were also rolled out, in addition to an emphasis on the ability of satellite technology to save the day by tracking individual offenders. 

Generally speaking, the crime debate is not unlike the anarchist view of voting: the government always wins.  So perceptions of rising crime tend to invite more repressive measures; perceptions of falling crime translate into votes. The core problem with the issue of law and order is this: a free society presupposes the opportunity to commit crime. Off-line, there’s ultimately nothing to stop a conversation turning to an assault – only preventing the conversation would guarantee that.  The fact that most conversations do not turn into assaults is down to people’s ability to police themselves.