Mark wrote:
On Fri, 12 Aug 2011 21:37:42 +0100, Grimly Curmudgeon
wrote:

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the
drugs began to take hold. I remember Hugh - Was Invisible
saying something like:

Yes we need to punish criminals.

We also need to do our best to include everyone in society. Taking away
benefits and housing from people with no immediate employment prospects
will simply lead to more stealing and riots - unless of course we shoot
them all or pay to keep them all in prison for years.
+1000
Indeed. The likelihood of a full-time underclass with no money, no
prospects and nothing over their heads will definitely lead to a serious
rise in muggings, burglaries, etc. The people in that situation will
simply look on it as something they're forced to do to make ends meet.
Sheeit, it's bad enough at the moment - why add to it.

cue the right wing loons

It's a shame that everything seems to boil down to right or left wings
views and everyone "has" to take sides. I prefer to evaluate policies
individually and support the ones that I believe will work and to
oppose those I don't like. Neither the right or the left has all the
answers.

Right now neither of them has any of the answers.