I know i won’t be garnering a great deal of support by expressing sympathy for our PM, Tony Blair, given the current climate. It seems these days that it’s cool to criticise him and ’so last year’ to be in support of the party and his leadership of it. That being said, a conversation I had wth a housemate last night has motivated me to put up this brief blog on his leadership at the moment.

I’m sure you’ll all have read or seen the coverage on the increase in gun crime and gang related crimes over recent months. I’ll be the first to admit i feel great sorrow that certain sections and members of society deem it fit to indulge in wanton violence and criminal acts, seemingly with complete disregard for either the law, or other people’s safety.

Most recently, and perhaps most poignant (though I have my own opinion on this), was the gunning down of Billy ‘Remer’ Cox in his South London home. Only 15 years old, this is a tragic loss of life and something which should strike at the very core of our morals and values both as humans, and as citizens of a democratic and supposedly evolved society.

Tony Blair’s immediate reaction has been, very rightly, to push for a lowering of the age to 17 at which young people can receive long prison sentences for possessing a gun. Call me Conservative, call me what you will, but i think it should be even lower, given the propensity for crime amongst 15 year olds. However, this is neither here nor there in this quick blog.

My housemate suggested that Tony Blair was a lazy politician as he only reacted to events rather than proactively working to prevent them and that he ought not to be doing that. I countered, suggesting that measures have been put in place to try to tackle crime such as Operation Trident, increased police presence in gang hotspots and increases in the numbers of armed police on the streets, and, would she rather he didn’t react at all. Calling someone a reactionary can and more often than not, is a criticism, however, at least he is reacting and not letting events wash over him in the aftermath of the Iraq criticisms and the controversy surrounding his continued leadership.

As suggested in the title and opening paragraphs, it seems that these days people are too keen to criticise the PM and in this situation, he’s damned for ‘only reacting and not doing more’ but equally, would be damned if he did nothing because (perhaps) he may feel that reducing the age of culpability would be seen as a politically Conservative move and not in line with the ethos of the party.

Having said all this, to surmise my current thoughts on the problems – gangster rap, incorrectly glamorised lifestyles, social and educational deprivation, perceived opportunity deficit, disaffected youth (pained as i am to use such a cliched term), bad attitude, sometimes nancy-state, lack of significant repurcussions…the list of factors upon which we can blame the current climate is quite extensive and perhaps is a topic for another blog when I have more time.

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