(Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday his
government would mend Britain's "broken society" to prevent a repeat
of the country's worst riots in decades.
More than 2,800 people have
been arrested since a protest over the fatal shooting of a suspect by police
prompted rioting and looting in the poor north London area of Tottenham, which
spread across the capital and sparked violence in other English cities.
Cameron, who returned from
holiday in Italy last week at the height of the unrest,
is seeking to tap into widespread public anger over the protests, which
occurred 15 months after he took office at the head of a cost-cutting
coalition.
"This has been a wake-up
call for our country. Social problems that have been festering for decades have
exploded in our face," Cameron, leader of the center-right Conservatives,
will say in a speech on Monday.
"Now, just as people
wanted criminals robustly confronted on our street, so they want to see these
problems taken on and defeated. Our security fightback must be matched by a
social fightback," he will say, according to advance extracts of his
speech.
The stakes are high for
Cameron. Any repeat of last week's lawlessness, in which shops were smashed up
and set on fire and five people were killed, will sap public confidence in his
government.
However, analysts say Cameron,
a slick former public relations executive, could benefit politically if he
provides the tough law and order response some voters are seeking.
Cameron has responded to the
crisis by taking a hardline stance and his speech on Monday will refer to the
dangers of indiscipline in schools and family breakdown, succour to traditional
Conservatives who feel their young leader is too liberal on social issues.
NO EXTRA CASH
Cameron, 44, and his
center-left Liberal Democrat coalition partners will review their programme
over the coming weeks, looking at issues like welfare and addiction to ensure
that stronger communities can be built.
But the prime minister has
ruled out easing spending cuts which some left-wing critics say are fuelling
tensions in Britain's cities, where the gap between rich and poor is gaping.
Cameron believes that jittery
financial markets will take fright at the first sign of
backtacking on plans to erase by 2015 a budget deficit that peaked at over 10
percent of national output.
"Yes, we have had an
economic crisis to deal with, clearing up the terrible mess we
inherited, and we are not out of those woods yet - not by a long way,"
Cameron will say on Monday.
"But...the reason I am
in politics is to build a bigger, stronger society," he said.
Opposition Labour leader Ed
Miliband said the government had to help young people who felt they would face
tougher lives than their parents or grandparents.
"Are issues like
education and skills, youth services, youth unemployment important for
diverting people away from gangs, criminality, the wrong path? Yes. They
matter," Miliband will say in a speech he will deliver on Monday at the
state school where he was educated in north London.
Miliband said a lack of
morality was not confined to a "feral underclass" but had also been
displayed by greedy bankers, legislators who fiddled their expenses and
newspaper reporters who hacked telephones for stories.
"When we talk about the
sick behavior of those without power, let's also talk about the sick behavior
of those with it," he said, according to advance extracts from his speech.
ANGRY POLICE
Planned spending cuts have put
Cameron on a collision course with the police, still smarting over his
criticism of their initial response to the riots.
Police chiefs say a 20 percent
cut in their budget over the next four years will make it harder for them to
maintain law and order.
Their anger has been stoked by
Cameron's decision to seek advice from William Bratton, a U.S. police chief who
has worked in Boston, New York and Los Angeles and is considered an expert at
tackling gang culture.
"I am not sure I want to
learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them," Hugh
Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, told the
Independent on Sunday newspaper.
(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft and Avril Ormsby;
Editing by Angus MacSwan)
Source : Reuters
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