Lyn Brown MP - " those who groom, use and abuse our children....(should receive) appropriately harsh prison sentences"

 

I have been meaning to post this powerful call for harsh prison sentences for the groomers and abusers of our young people.

Lyn Brown MP, House of Commons debate 15/12/21 "Spoke yesterday to introduce a Bill which, if enacted into law would, I believe, begin to end the end the scourge of county lines and the exploitation and harm to our children that it causes.

All of the content from the speech came from local events and stories and the generosity of local mums who shared their stories with me.

I want to see those who groom, use and abuse our children receiving appropriately harsh prison sentences because that is the only way that this “business model” of illegal drug sales will be destroyed. It started in the last decade, it can stop in this if we take the appropriate action"

St Matthews public meeting on Crime and ASB

A lovely picture from last Friday evening when Councillors and officers met Residents and Police to discuss how to tackle jointly crime and anti-social behaviour in the area (Forest Gate South ward adjacent to Romford Road).

The meeting was Chaired by Cllr Shaban Mohammed and went in my view really well with constructive but frank views expressed and received. Residents seemed to have been pleased with recent changes (thanks to the new ward Council Housing liaison officers who have been very proactive). Residents let us know that they expected us to deliver for them.

The Police and the Council undertook to support residents with improved enforcement action and also for housing to make improvements in order to try and "design out crime".

We also had a decent discussion about the impact that Government cuts to Police numbers and local authority grants has had. 

I have never been inside St Matthews Church before and did not realise how large it is and its beautiful stained glass windows. It parish war memorial from the first world war was also striking and it stuns you how many local men were killed in a relatively small London parish. There were also 3 family plaques on the walls remembering the war time deaths of young parishioners.

How to Solve the Recession: End Prohibition and Tax Drugs?

I listened this morning to "From our own Correspondent" on BBC Radio 4. One report was from Uruguay where they are considering legalising drugs. The main reason given for this was to put out of business violent drug gangs.

I remember being at a pension meeting a few months ago where we received a briefing from an economics adviser on the financial outlook. It was pretty bleak with the prospect of years of little or low growth, demand or investment and continuing cuts in public expenditure. The adviser broadly supported current government policy.

I said there is always an alternative economic policy and why couldn't the UK do what governments did before the second world war - borrow money and invest into massive infrastructure projects to pump prime the economy out of recession?

The adviser made an interesting but provocative response. He said that many people who look to the massive state investments during the New Deal economic programme in 1930's America as an example of what we should be doing now miss an important point. This huge investment was largely fully funded and not borrowed. It was paid for by the ending of the prohibition on alcohol in America, which led to increases in taxation, which paid for the New Deal investment.

While I do not accept all his arguments it did bring the question to the fore that should we in Britain legalise and heavily tax drugs in this country to bring in enough Government revenue to pay off the national debt and invest to bring about recovery?

Since we were at a pension trustee meeting, sadly it was decided that such matters were not really within our remit and we continued to discuss the normal "boring but important stuff" such as valuations, fund manager reports etc. 

I have for many years been convinced that we have lost the war on drugs and we should consider legalising them to get rid of the violent drug gangs. There will still have to be safeguards and it will have risks but if by ending this prohibition and then heavily taxing drugs, we can bring about the end of this recession, is this not yet another powerful reason to at least consider it?

Personal views as always. Photo of anti-prohibition pro-Beer Tax parade in 1930's USA.

Welcome Back Big Bad Mikey :)

Welcome back to Newham blogging Big Bad Mikey. I always knew that you could not leave me and close your blog. I am so sorry that Dud and Pete upset you so much and I am glad you have returned to the fold.  I am sure that you will appreciate the above "You say goodbye and I say Hello" clip :)

End Prohibition? Legalise Drugs..

On the way home tonight I heard on the radio a defensive Richard Brunstrom, maverick Chief Constable (& blogger)of North Wales Police, argue for possession of all drugs to be decriminalised.

Once again I am personalising things (not usually a good thing in Politics) but today at work I heard about yet another resident being “banged up” for several years and losing his home for stupid drug offences. I have absolutely no sympathy with drug dealers, and if “prison works” and actually dealt with illegal drug abuse in this country then I would not bat an eyelid at such consequences. However, now I feel that this is just another waste of a life.

Brunstrom’s argument was that we have lost the war against drugs and like America in the 1920s; we should recognise that Prohibition against drugs is an unwinnable war. For example, despite draconian criminal sanctions we can only stop an estimated 10% of heroin from being imported each year. The rest gets in and floods the market, often impure and untested, ultimately only benefiting low life drug dealers. He also points out that he did not want a “free for all”. I suppose there would need to be severe sanctions of dealers who for example targeted children. But the big mass of dealers who we see driving around our big cities in flash cars and covered in bling, setting a completely wrong example to young people, would be put out of business in a single stroke.

He also argues, I think persuasively, that we are pretty much near the limit of what democratic societies subject to the rule of law can actually do. If long mandatory sentences and fortitude's fail to stop criminals dealing then what do we do next? Hang ‘em high? While no doubt that does have an effect, it still hasn’t got rid of the problem in China, Singapore or even Cuba. Personally I don’t want to live in a quasi-fascist Police State simply because of dipsticks who enjoy rotting their brains for a quick fix.

Okay, I am ignoring my potentially very harmful consumption of my legal “drug of choice” - a glass of red wine that is staring at me beguilingly as I type (but, it’s organic, taxed and from Tesco’s, so it must be alright!)

Over the years I have seen what drug abuse can do to individuals and families. The filth and squalor is sometimes simply just beyond belief. Society as well suffers, not only the drug fuelled violence, muggings, burglaries and petty thefts that junkies get up to but the massive cost to the taxpayer of the criminal justice system that is needed to deal with addicts. If the present policy does not work. Something needs to be done. Something radical?

I won’t even mention the destruction and misery that prohibition causes in poor countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan. Where drug production and dealing fuels terrorism and gangsters. If we legalised drugs, these gangs would collapse.

Fundamentally, we are supposed to have a “joined up” government that is evidence based and looks at what works? If we cannot stop drug importation and abuse in this country then why do we enrich dealers with such huge amounts of money when we could simply legalise the supply, maybe require GP prescriptions, tax it very heavily and use the money to educate people on its dangers. The dramatic decline in smoking is surely a real indication of what can be done to combat drugs if it is legalised. Everything we have tried so far has simply failed.

Remember if there is nothing we can effectively do about the supply of illegal drugs by prohibition then what have we really got to lose by trying decriminalisation?