Hague blames crime on liberal culture

Hague says the police deserve more political backing

Conservative leader William Hague is to argue that a liberal culture has led to a "rising tide of lawlessness" in Britain.

In an address to the Police Federation of England and Wales, he will complain that criminals are being treated as victims rather than what he calls "the scourge of society".

He will commit a future Conservative government to a package of law and order measures - thought to include a proposal to extend the right of appeal by the prosecution against lenient prison sentences.

Mr Hague's speech comes a few days after he proposed the reform of the legal principle of double jeopardy - which currently means a suspect cannot be tried twice for the same crime.

'Punishment works'

Outlining Mr Hague's thinking, shadow home secretary Ann Widdecombe said it was essential that the law works to defend the victim and not the criminal.

"Not only does punishment work but it can bring about a real decrease in crime," she told the BBC.

Turning to the recent case of farmer Tony Martin jailed for murdering a burglar, she said it had touched a nerve with the public.

She said: "The Tony Martin case became the focus for a very wide perception that people feel the law is not working on their side - that an innocent householder, I'm not saying Tony Martin is innocent, can end up on the wrong end of the law purely because he or she has been burgled."

'Fearful of punishment'

Mr Hague will also tell rank and file officers that liberal thinking has damaged the criminal justice system, while during the post-war period the murder rate had doubled and burglaries and violent crime had spiralled.

He will argue that the only period when crime fell consistently was towards the end of the last Conservative government.

A "rising tide of disorder and lawlessness" is caused by a culture which treats crime as an abstract problem, he is expected to say.

"I want criminals to be fearful of getting caught and fearful of punishment, so they will choose not to commit crimes," Mr Hague will tell delegates.

"And I want a police force that gets the backing and resources from the politicians it deserves."

Mr Hague will propose a significant extension of a prosecution's right of appeal against lenient sentences - a policy first mooted by the Conservative Party in the late 1980s.