Cameron addresses 'broken' society

David Cameron has said that British society is "badly broken" in the wake of the fatal shootings of three teenage boys in south London.

 

The Conservative leader said that the death of 15-year-old Billy Cox, who was killed in his own home on Wednesday, was a symptom of society's wider problems.

 

"That's what our society's now come to - teenagers shooting other teenagers in their homes at point blank range. It is deeply depressing," he told GMTV.

 

"This goes beyond any one policy or any one government. I think what we need is to recognise our society is badly broken and we need to make some big changes, starting now."

 

But speaking Scotland Tony Blair said the shootings should not be seen as symptomatic of society's problems.

 

""What has happened in south London is horrific, shocking and for the victims and their families tragic beyond belief," the prime minister said.

 

"However, let us be careful in our response. This tragedy is not a metaphor for the state of British society, still less for the state of British youth today, the huge majority of whom, including in this part of London, are responsible and law-abiding young people.

 

"But it is a specific problem, in a specific criminal culture amongst specific groups of young people."

 

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell also added that: "There are no quick fixes to the problems of relationship breakdown and a disenfranchised generation.

 

"Nurturing families and building communities takes years. We need a strong police response for now, but in the long term it is only by encouraging respect for others that we can end the cycle of violence."
 

Cameron put family breakdown at the heart of the social problems which led to the shootings.

 

Governments should ask whether everything they do is helping to strengthen families and keep them together, he said.

 

"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," he argued.

 

"That, I think, is what's at the heart of it. Yes, we need to stop the guns coming into our country, and we would introduce a border police.

 

"Yes, we need to have tough sentences for those who carry guns or deal in guns or use guns.

 

"But that's not enough, and we know it's not enough, so let's start the big culture change of encouraging responsibility in our country."

 

Cameron pledged that a Conservative government would put family life ahead of economic prosperity for Britain.

 

The Tory leader said that the report this week by the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, which found the UK was the worst country in the developed world to grow up in, showed that society was in "deep trouble".

 

In a keynote speech in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, he said that work patterns which damaged family life must change.

 

It is another break with the Tory tradition of Margaret Thatcher, who famously said there was no such thing as society and who emphasised the importance of economic competitiveness.

 

Cameron, in contrast, said that when setting policy, the family must come first.