Hug a hoodie says Cameron

Watch our interview again

Bored teenagers who hang around in shopping centres should be given a little more understanding.

The message, which has already been dubbed "hug a hoodie" wouldn't be surprising if it came from a social worker or a vicar.

But, coming from the lips of the Conservative Party leader David Cameron, it is unusual.

Mr Cameron's expected to include the plea for greater understanding of teenagers in a speech later today on crime and justice.

So, is he making a blatant attempt to steal new labour's clothes?

This morning on Breakfast:

We talked live to David Cameron himself.

We began by putting one of our viewers' emails to him, which asked whether he'd gone "stark, staring bonkers."

"I'm not surprised by that reaction if what I say is reported as "hug a hoodie" Mr Cameron told us. "That's not what I said.

What you told Breakfast Has Mr Cameron gone stark staring bonkers? These hooded thugs should be banned, not treated as lost lambs! Kris, London Read more viewers' comments on our Your Say page

"I'm saying: ask the question - what brought the young person to the point of committing a crime.

"Let's try and understand what's gone wrong in these children's lives and it's about family break-down, drugs and alcohol abuse. Or young people being brought up in care instead of in loving homes.

"Let's try and deal with those problems - and that doesn't mean you can't deal with crime severely when it is committed."

Mr Cameron's promising more support for voluntary organisation working with young people, because he thinks they're more effective than State provision.

We talked to the Labour Home Office Minister Tony McNulty.

He complained that Labour initiatives like parenting orders and Anti-Sociai behaviour orders had been dismissed as gimmicks by the Tories. Now, it seemed, they were advocating a very similar approach.

We debated the trouble with teenagers with journalists Andrew Pierce and Polly Toynbee.

Both seemed convinced that the "hoodies" speech was part of a deliberate plan to change the Conservatives' image.