It didn't take long for the law and order auction to get underway, or for the politicians to start lying about the crime statistics. As a former Home Secretary, Michael Howard ought to know better, but his new policy to deal with "yob culture", unveiled this afternoon, is based on a fundamental untruth.
He claimed that currently "the only real punishment for breach of an antisocial behaviour order is prison", and promised all sorts of mayhem short of custody instead. Their driving licenses will be taken away. They will be ordered to do community work. Their parents will have their housing benefit cut, will be placed under supervision and even face weekend jail, although there is no mention of who will then look after the offending teenagers at the weekend.
But the truth is that, apart from jailing the parents for the weekend, most of the sanctions already used to punish breaches of Asbos involve precisely such community penalties - and not prison. The latest figures show that of 800 Asbos breached between 2000 and 2003, 437 did involve the offender going to prison. But 93% of them were jailed for other offences at the same time. Only 7% were sent to prison solely for breaching their Asbo. Howard's promise to tackle "yob culture" sounds tough but in reality all he is promising is a policy very similar to Labour's.
