GORDON Brown put a huge crackdown on booze-fuelled yob culture at the heart of his make-or-break speech.
In measures targeted at the underclasses highlighted in the TV show Shameless, the prime minister was announcing plans to force courts to consider slapping anyone convicted of a crime while under the influence of alcohol with a so-called `drink Asbo'.
That could see them banned from entering specific pubs and off-licences or face a £2,500 fine.
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Mr Brown will also ensure every parent of a child guilty of anti-social behaviour will be hit with a parenting order that will compel them to seek one-to-one help. Anyone who refuses will see their benefits slashed, the prime minister will say. Mr Brown was due to say the 'decent majority' are right to be furious at 'chaotic families' ruining their lives.
"Whenever and wherever there is anti-social behaviour," Mr Brown was due to tell the Labour conference in Brighton this afternoon, "we will be there to fight it.
"We will not stand by and see the lives of the lawful majority disrupted by the behaviour of the lawless minority.
"Because the decent hard-working majority are getting ever more angry, rightly so, with the minority who will talk about their rights but never accept their responsibilities."
Mr Brown's speech was likely to include a fierce attack on the Conservatives.
Hazel Blears, MP for Salford, said she wanted 'a fighting speech'.
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Brown vows action on 'Shameless' culture
September 29, 2009
Brown will promise to fight 'anti-social behaviour'
Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All
CorneredAllTheLuck, Tameside (29/09/2009 at 10:07)
Mamaduke, Broad Street (29/09/2009 at 10:12)
Al Capone of Atherton, Atherton (29/09/2009 at 10:17)
That bit of fluff, under the sofa (29/09/2009 at 10:21)
Black Flag (29/09/2009 at 10:26)
That minority being the government.
Ran Droid, Manchester (29/09/2009 at 10:37)
Stop watering down education, set the income tax starting point to 10k, revoke the minimum wage for under 21's and start making employment-able people do community work for their benefits after 12 months of being on them. That'll soon ensure they're too busy to cause trouble.
A Singleton, Gorton (29/09/2009 at 10:53)
This is by no means a new problem, and this Government have had 12 years to come up with a solution. I'm not sure the Tories will do any better. What we really need is somebody who will finally get tough. (on crime, and the causes of crime. Where have I heard that before ?)
Of Denton, Tameside (29/09/2009 at 10:58)
Black Flag (29/09/2009 at 11:08)
tiggerluc, somewhere in shaw (29/09/2009 at 11:16)
Sorry not good enough must try harder. So if Mr Brown is against binge drinking then why on earth did he introduce all hour drinking?!
hulme hatter, M15 (29/09/2009 at 11:21)
That bit of fluff, under the sofa (29/09/2009 at 11:26)
Bring back National Service.
Bring back the proper brutal Borstal regime at YOIs.
Bring back capital punishment.
Bring back Grammar Schools.
Stop paying yobs to do nothing.
Stop supporting teenage mothers.
Stop making excuses for badly behaved cretins.
Stop selling cheap booze.
Stop adherence to human rights legislation.
Start making people work for dole.
Start de-housing problem families.
Start thinking about the majority.
Start punishing instead of 'understanding'
Start making prison very unpleasant.
Black Flag (29/09/2009 at 11:41)
Why? What is it about the biggest mob that entitles them to special treatment?
nyb, ex manc (29/09/2009 at 11:50)
And before the "responsible" drinkers start squealing, tightening up that aspect doesn't prevent access to your brain desensitiser of choice; just have to pay more and have fewer outlets. So the "freedom" of choice to drink is not curtailed.
Ran Droid, Manchester (29/09/2009 at 12:03)
Revoking it for over 21's wouldn't be a vote winner, people would fear their wages would decrease - the fact it may also improve job security, where a business could choose to temporarily reduce pay to under current minimum wage levels rather than make people redundant, wouldn't matter. I may philosophically disagree with the minimum wage, but I'm a pragmatist at heart, and it's here to stay.
And whilst the minimum wage has made employing people of no experience more difficult, it's those 21 and under who have been the most badly hit, hence the one that needs dealing with.
Perhaps revoking it for those with under 30 months employment as opposed to it being age-based? Maybe that would be a better idea and allow employers take on inexperienced staff without risking over £200 a week on wages, NI and red tape?
@Of Denton
Not quite sure the British electorate is quite ready to elect a facially-pierced rocker, no matter how much they may agree with my opinions ;)
Black Flag (29/09/2009 at 12:04)
Ran Droid, Manchester (29/09/2009 at 12:11)
I have yet to see a retailer force a consumer to purchase something. The abrogation of personal responsibility, and the elevation of the state into a pseudo-parent, is the very root of the UK's problems.
If you want to be treated like an adult, act like one, accept that when you make a bad decision the only person at fault is yourself. This blame-anyone-but-yourself culture disgusts me.
When a drunk starts trouble, blame the drunk, not the people who supplied them with the drink.
Jay B, oldham (29/09/2009 at 12:12)
i doubt it!
if you dont work you dont get. benefits, council house the lot. if you arent prepared to contribute to society they you deserve nothing at all.
also scrap child benefits!
if you cannot afford children then you shouldnt have them. its now seen as finiancially attractive to have kids. its time that stopped!
the most common form of child abuse or neglect is havingthem when you cannot support them yourself!
its time all these handouts stopped. unless you've already paid enough into the system you get nothing at all!
till these sorts of things happen we will only sink further and further down.
semi literate simian (29/09/2009 at 12:23)
It is in no way the failed policies of the incumbent government that are to blame? Very much like the old "being chancellor for a decade running up to the financial crash he has no culpability but is trying to get praise for averting a disaster" chestnut.
After heavily altering licencing laws to allow 24 hour drinking etc and beefing up state benefits to the point where for many people it's now more economically viable to skive rather than work is it any wonder they skive?
The list of policy u-turns/specialist advice ignored/money squandered is amazingly long now. To name but a few...Millenium Dome, Super Casino's, selling our gold reserve's at rock bottom, MP's expense's, An NHS which now has more managers than beds and of course the biggest debt the country has ever had (and that doesn't include off balance sheet lending to banks, PFI hospitals etc (which the NHS will be paying back for the next 20yrs!)
Roll on June, and an election so we can see the last of this unelected, unpopular and altogether useless man.
John Quambo, salford (29/09/2009 at 12:30)
I'm sick of paying tax so the scum of society can be given free money and free houses. Whay do we have to live amongst these amoebas?
I see them strolling round town, in and out of the shops, spending their free money with not a care in the world when they should be AT WORK like the rest of us.
Gordon Brown. You are a JOKE.
That bit of fluff, under the sofa (29/09/2009 at 12:34)
"Start thinking about the majority." Why? What is it about the biggest mob that entitles them to special treatment?
I ask the other question: why should the minority keep getting their own way at a cost to everyone else?
Of Denton, Tameside (29/09/2009 at 12:35)
1) warn them.
2) cut off ALL benefits.
3) Put them in Prison (for a long time).
Panzer 391, Salford (29/09/2009 at 12:38)
Black Flag (29/09/2009 at 12:44)
So you just take a divide and conquer approach where you pick one group to give the harsh treatment to?
I don't think it would work anyway. It might appeal to a few simpletons at the outset, but as soon as companies started employing under 21s on preference to the over 21s because they're pay them far less, it would become unpopular quickly.
Black Flag (29/09/2009 at 12:46)
That's not the other question, it's the same question, but with a different group getting special treatment.