Tony Blair is on a law and order kick. The prime minister will press his ideas on police chiefs and home secretary Jack Straw today, in Downing Street . The Home Office already has a crime reduction strategy , with reduction of disorderly behaviour a high priority. 4.Police forces have been told to set targets for reducing crime, and the government wants to speed up what it calls youth justice . The Police Federation , which represents officers up to the rank of Inspector, is not wildly enthusiastic about taking on new spot-fining powers.
Civil libertarians are opposed to extension of existing police law .
However, Blair's new tough-guy approach is likely to go down well with the temperance movement . The Institute for Alcohol Studies has some thought-provoking information on alcohol and crime in general, and pub violence in particular. There is a bleak school of thought that unless crime is curbed, inner cities will fester and decay over the next 25 years. There's nothing funny about loutishness. Unless, that is, you follow the hilarious progress of the Yobs , as drawn by Tony Husband in Private Eye .