Criminals should fear us - Howard

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Conservative leader Michael Howard has told supporters in Wales that his government would make criminals fear the police.

Mr Howard, launching his Welsh manifesto, said he would recruit 2,199 extra police officers in Wales.

His manifesto also reaffirmed the Tory commitment to a referendum on the future of the Welsh assembly.

But Mr Howard declined to say which option he would back: abolition, the status quo, or extra powers.

Mr Howard arrived in Cardiff on the same day as he also launched his party's UK manifesto in London and the Scottish version in Glasgow.

Speaking to an audience of supporters in Cardiff's City Hall, he talked about his upbringing in Llanelli, west Wales.

Mr Howard, 63, praised the discipline, ambition, and hard work of Llanelli Grammar School and said : "I'm in politics to give something back to the country which gave so much to me."

I want criminals to look over their shoulders in fear - not the law abiding public. And I use that word deliberately - fear Michael Howard

He devoted a large part of his speech to law and order, and said criminals now had more chance of committing a crime and getting away with it than for the last 25 years.

The former home secretary accused Tony Blair of "pussyfooting around" on crime.

He promised to put more police on the streets, to scrap the "politically correct form" police had to fill in every time they stopped somebody, and ensure lawbreakers knew they would be punished.

He said he wanted police officers to "have the confidence to eyeball these characters; to invade their personal body space, just like they are invading others".

He told supporters : "I want criminals to look over their shoulders in fear - not the law abiding public. And I use that word deliberately - fear.

"I want criminals to fear the police. It's time we gave these yobs a dose of the fear they've been dishing out to the rest of us."

Mr Howard also emphasised his party's main commitments to cleaner hospitals, with matrons back in charge, lower taxes, and controlled immigration.

He said travellers, "stick two figures up to the law", and added: "We are all British and we should all have to play by the same rules."

On the future of the assembly, Mr Howard was asked what view he held as a Welshman. He said: "I don't live in Wales any more, and I think it's a decision which should be taken by the people of Wales, so I don't intend to express a view."