Britain today

Over the last two weeks there have been 3 fatal shootings of teenagers in London.This has sparked debate, and for once I agree with a conservative leader! David Cameron spoke yesterday-
"We need to recognise our society is badly broken and we need to make some big changes, starting now," he told GMTV.
"When you look at the people caught up in these events, what you see is a complete absence in many cases of fathers, and a complete presence of family breakdown. That, I think, is what's at the heart of it."

There are kids constantly hanging outside on my estate. It is because of this culture of violence that I am determined not to stay here.
In my work, people seem to put money before their family. I am astounded by the callousness of parents. I never really watch the terrestrial channels here-Soaps still as depressing as ever, reality TV with racist,self absorbed wanna-be nobodies.
Is our society rotting?Can the government bring back order? Is it the government's job?
The following article is taken from today's Daily Express

Blair and Tories in gangland

stand-off

17/02/07

By Alison Little

TONY Blair and David Cameron clashed yesterday over the

significance of the teenage shootings in south London.

The Conservative leader suggested the events showed that

British society was “badly broken” and needed big changes to

boost family life – including “compelling men to stand by their families”.

But the Prime Minister insisted that the killings did not represent the

state of society or its young people but arose from specific problems –

and he too suggested family responsibility was a factor.

The leaders spoke in the wake of the violent deaths of five people,

including three teenagers, in south London in a fortnight.

Mr Cameron said he had been “shocked, appalled and deeply

saddened” by pictures of Billy’s body being carried out of his house.

“That’s what our society has now come to – teenagers shooting

other teenagers in their homes at point-blank range,” he said.

“It is deeply depressing and this goes beyond any one policy or

any one government. We need to recognise our society is badly

broken and we need to make some big changes starting now.”

Mr Cameron, who went on to set out more detailed proposals

in a major speech, said better policing, gun control and

tougher sentences were needed. “But that is not

going to stop the gangs and the gun culture. What might stop

the gangs and the gun culture is stronger families.”

But Culture Minister David Lammy said: “I don’t want to go

back to a false debate between single parents and those with two parents. It is more complicated than that.”

Mr Blair, speaking at a Labour youth conference in Glasgow, described

the shooting of three teenagers as “horrific, shocking and tragic beyond belief”.

He pledged that the Government would publish proposals but he insisted:

“Let us be careful in our response. This tragedy is not a metaphor for

the state of British society.”

Meanwhile, Constitutional Affairs Minister Harriet Harman,

MP for Peckham in south London, suggested that parents struggled to keep

children out of trouble after the age of five. Speaking outside the house

where Billy died, she said: “Young people have said to me today that

there are always some elements who get involved in gangs.”

She added that she would be lobbying Home Secretary John Reid

over concerns about the availability on the internet of imitation guns

which could be adapted for use.