8) I BELIEVE THE PUNISHMENT SHOULD FIT THE CRIME.
Wrong: Such a cursory statement, lifted straight from a Gilbert and Sullivan musical, to try and cover such a diverse problem merely proves Mr Howard’s unsuitability when it comes to making valued, in-depth judgements about far bigger issues. Here is a man (I use the word "man" in its loosest possible sense) who patches together his policy on crime and criminality with a quote from an operetta! Like the majority of his speeches of late, they are just “cut and paste” efforts......you know, cross out “dog” and insert “goldfish”; it wouldn’t surprise me if he doesn’t turn up to the next Common’s debate in a sea-captain’s uniform, sword under arm telling everyone that he really should be the next Prime Minister as he’s “the very model of a modern major-general.”
Now, you may think that it’s OK to have a Prime Minister who quotes from turn of the century musical pieces in order to formulate policy; maybe you'd feel better if we had a leader who’s well versed in the plebian arts, can whistle snatches from most G&S operettas and all of Lloyd-Webber's "Cats" gig and who has an aesthetic goal based on the word "punishment" for the betterment of our society being in charge.........with ‘their finger on the button’; Coward once spelt out a truism when he wrote, “Strange how potent cheap music is”.
OK, let’s forget for a moment that the line quoted in the opening of this discussion is actually from a musical (I use the word "musical" in its loosest possible sense here too) let's try not to, destroy too many dreams by stating……IT’S NOT REAL LIFE; let’s disregard both those points for a moment.....but how would you feel if that person did something as childish as make musicals his muse for policy formulation AND then STILL mis-read the message in the song? I say, be worried; be very, very worried. You want proof…..OK, read on.
In a reprise of earlier idiocy, Howard used a line from West Side Story, "I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived" in one of his speeches to show how youth blamed everyone else but themselves for their wrongdoing and the state of the nation...........ring any bells anyone? When Howard quoted those lines I thought, “Never has someone so seemingly intelligent misinterpreted a musical’s central message so badly ". “I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived" has nothing to do with youth’s get-out clause, it’s a statement of fact; listen, Mr Howard, and I’ll try and break it down for you.
It’s a line that firstly states the inherent difficulties surrounding youth when they are rudderless, penniless, unemployed and undervalued. In a society that is framed by a winner-loser nice guys finish last mentality, that has a government who holds cheating and lying, stealing and denying as the way to get ahead in life and leaders and role models who class success as the amount of jewellery you wear and the number of times you eat out in a week. The lives of juveniles who have no hope of getting out of their circumstances are constantly held up to ridicule by the 3g society we live in………Get on, Get honour, Get honest. “I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived" is a statement that asks for help, understanding and support, a wake-up call to those who have the power to create a better society for the individual and the nation to do so…..meaningfully; to re-use your other quote from that same speech but change the emphasis, "Juvenile delinquency is purely a social disease". It’s a social disease because the germs for infection are in the bloodstream of our society after it was injected with Thatcher’s “fuck ‘em all” doctrine. It’s now a society where the individual sees only itself as important and at the expense of the majority; that it really is alright to sell arms in order for brutes to dominate the foolish masses and butcher children; s’got to be, after all, Thatcher's son makes a good living out of it and look where it's got her and him.
Society, by its role models, its ideologies and its doctrines give young people the scaffold upon which to base their behaviour and their level of care; if we furnish them with the right role models we get a good payback. As it is we furnished them with the roles and role models of Mr Howard Esq. and the last Tory government; is it any wonder we’ve got the problems we have now?
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