Cameron outlines social reforms ahead of 'broken society by-election'

Tory leader David Cameron said today that anyone convicted of knife crime should expect a jail sentence.

He was speaking at the launch of his party's campaign in the Glasgow East contest, which he described as "the broken society by-election".

Mr Cameron's speech spelled out a hard line on knife crime.

"We are proposing that anyone convicted of knife crime should expect to go to jail," said the Tory leader.

"I don't believe that the Government's 'presumption to prosecute' is enough. It doesn't send a strong enough signal. We need a 'presumption to prison'."

Mr Cameron also set out to claim the moral high ground in politics, claiming that society had become "far too sensitive" to say what was right and what was wrong.

He argued that, both in that contest and in elections to come, Tories would make it their "mission" to repair the broken society - "to heal the wounds of poverty, crime, social disorder and deprivation that are steadily making this country a grim and joyless place to live for far too many people".

Mr Cameron set out his party's position in a church in Barlanark in the east end of Glasgow.

The church is dedicated to St Jude, patron saint of lost causes, but Mr Cameron, whose party came fourth in Glasgow East in the 2007 election, denied this made it an appropriate venue.

Before the speech, Mr Cameron and former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith visited the Gallowgate area of Glasgow, where they talked with local volunteers helping the families of drug addicts.

Mr Duncan Smith visited the east end of Glasgow in 2002 and it led to the Tories putting a new emphasis on poverty and social policy.

Mr Cameron argued today that the social breakdown to be seen in Glasgow East was simply an "extreme version" of what could be seen elsewhere, with welfare dependency now a "crisis" for the whole country and knife crime worrying families across the UK.

"This is the broken society by-election," said Mr Cameron.

"It comes in a place where the people are shouting 'Gordon Brown, wasn't Labour supposed to end this degrading poverty?'

"It comes at a time when the country is asking 'What is going on with the knife crime and violence on our streets?'"

He argued that the Tories had a clear plan - and, while they aimed to rebuild the economy and also to improve the NHS, they would make it their "mission" to repair "our broken society".

"We can and will bring and hope and aspiration to places where there is resignation and despair," he said.

"Whether it is knife crime or any other symptom of our broken society, we will repair the damage by treating not just the symptoms, but the causes too."

The thread that connected knife crime with worklessness, ill-health, wasted lives, family breakdown, welfare dependency, debt and drugs and other problems plaguing Britain was a society in danger of losing its sense of personal and social responsibility, common decency - "and, yes, even public morality", said Mr Cameron.

Social reforms included ending the idea that the state gave people money for nothing - "If you can work, you must work," said Mr Cameron.

"We will insist on it and, believe me, we will stick to our guns when the going gets tough."

He said the Tories had a bold, reforming policy agenda but there was more to repairing a broken society than policy and politics.

"I think the time has come for me to speak out about something that has been troubling me for a long time," said the Tory leader.

"I have not found the words to say it sensitively.

"And then I realised that is the whole point - we as a society have become far too sensitive.

"In order to avoid injury to people's feelings, in order to avoid appearing judgmental, we have failed to say what needs to be said."

The result had been an erosion of responsibility, of social virtue, self-discipline and respect for others.

"Instead, we prefer moral neutrality, a refusal to make judgments about what is good and bad behaviour, right and wrong behaviour," Mr Cameron continued.

"Bad, good, right, wrong - these are words that our political system and our public sector scarcely dare use anymore."

Refusing to use the words 'right' and 'wrong' meant denying personal responsibility and the idea of moral choice, he said.

"We talk about people being at risk of obesity instead of talking about people who eat too much and take too little exercise.

"We talk about people being at risk of poverty or social exclusion as if these things - obesity, alcohol abuse or drug addiction - are purely external events."

Mr Cameron declared: "There is a danger of becoming quite literally a demoralised society where nobody will tell the truth anymore about what is good and bad, right and wrong.

"That is why children are growing up without boundaries, thinking they can do as they please and why no adult will intervene to stop them - including often their parents."

Tories understood that the causes of the broken society lay not just in government, but in national culture, and changing this would be neither quick nor easy.

It involved "saying to headteachers 'You are responsible and, if you want enforceable home-school contracts and the freedom to exclude, you can have it - and we will judge you on your results'", said Mr Cameron.

It also involved saying to police that targets and a top-down bureaucracy were going - but they must account to an elected individual who would want answers if they failed.

Businesses could also change culture by taking responsibility and they would be helped with deregulation and tax cuts - but, in the long run, they would depend on the steps they took to help tackle the costs of social failure that had driven their own costs up.

"It is the responsibility agenda and it will be the defining thread of any government I lead," said Mr Cameron.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced today that the Government will review knife sentencing guidelines which come into force in less than a month.

The Sentencing Guidelines Council (SGC) has published advice to magistrates which says knife possession can be punished by a fine in the least serious cases, such as when the weapon has not been used to threaten.

Mr Straw said this would be reviewed, but added: "It's not a U-turn."

He said: "We will be talking to other ministers about it and we will make an announcement."

The Government can ask the SGC to review its own guidelines if there is concern that a sentence is no longer appropriate.

Mr Straw also backed calls for all hospitals to collect anonymous data on injuries caused by knives and other weapons.

He noted that an independent academic survey published in April said the number of people treated in hospital for serious violence fell 12% last year.

He also revealed that his son, William, had had a "knife pulled on him" in his first days at secondary school in the early 1990s.

William had been forced to "hand over his pocket money," Mr Straw said.

The incident was reported to the police, he added.

Policing Minister Tony McNulty said: "David Cameron is trying hard to sound tough today - but this is from the man who says he wants to hug a hoodie.

"As the Prime Minister said last month, carrying a knife is unacceptable. We have doubled the maximum sentence for carrying a knife, and anyone over 16 caught with a knife should be prosecuted. When they get to court, they are now almost three times as likely to go to prison as 10 years ago.

"The Tories have consistently voted soft on law and order. They have voted against tougher sentences for murder, sexual and violent offences, against five-year minimum sentences for carrying an illegal gun, against allowing new trials for murder if new evidence comes to light, and against giving the police more powers to take DNA from suspects.

"People will ask themselves how the Conservative Party can claim to campaign against crime in Glasgow when on the same day they are campaigning in Haltemprice and Howden against our policies to use CCTV and DNA evidence to fight crime.

"David Cameron can't continue to treat people like idiots. He needs to tell the country what his policies are on crime - and not just tell one audience one thing and the next audience something completely different."