What Labour need to do to win me back

[chrissetti]

I didn't vote for Labour in the last election, and wouldn't have even if there was a reasonable chance the candidate could get in. But why not?  Well it wasn't over matters of the economy. Despite screams from the Right, the National debt in Britain is actually lower, as a percentage of GDP than Germany, France, Italy, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal,

Comments

[jamesofdoom]

That's a fab article young man. I miss your political and religious editorials and you ought to do more because they are always top quality

[chrissetti]

You can't make any observations on crime on 'unreported' figures, though. Any claim that 'unreported crime' is going up or down is going to inherently be unreliable and worthless. Yes millions of crimes go unreported, but how does that compare to, say 2000 or 1995 or 1990? it's impossible to say.

Sexual crimes did need highlighting, though. For as long as we've had a justice system rapes have been under-reported, under-prosecuted and underestimated.

I'm a little uneasy with the implied suggestion that sexual abuse isn't that bad. It's not the actual act which is damaging but the mental scarring, the terror of having somebody have total control of your body and even your mind. I know you didn't mean to trivialise it, and are just making the observation that being killed is worse but it could be very easily misconstrued, I fear.

Also, you have to admit the media has to take its fair share of blame for any bias or distortion in the crime figures! We do have a free press and the government can't decide what the papers report on.

[jamesofdoom]

"You can't make any observations on crime on 'unreported' figures, though"

No, but similarly the crime statistics used to suggest crime is falling are also flawed, so you're claim (or your belief in the government's claim) that crime is falling is also based on unreliable and worthless statistics.

[chrissetti]

Perhaps, but unless the rate of reporting is disproportionately going down, we can follow a basic trend.

[jamesofdoom]

I particularly liked this paragraph Chris.

"So that's the ultimatum, Labour; either defend civil liberties or lose not just my vote but all of us who believe that the freedoms we've fought for are more important than the illusion of security these measures provide. Please give us a real option to vote for in 2015"