"We're far too soft" is a very common refrain from folk that I pick up. Soft on criminals, soft on foreign prisoners, soft on immigrants, soft on asylum seekers, soft on EU workers. Just before I stood on my soap-box for one of my regular question times in Blackburn town centre a gentleman came up to me and asked whether there was any other country in Europe "which doled out benefits - including child benefit" to workers from other EU countries, like Poles "even if their children are still in Poland?"
I understand exactly why people feel this. It's partly the fact that our media, , are going to highlight cases where the system is taken for a ride. And when people are feeling the pinch, as they are these days, resentments about others who maybe abusing the system are bound to rise.
But is any of this true? Mostly not. Here are some answers.
Crime: Down again especially in Lancashire, where we have one of the best police forces in the country. Five years ago my residents' meetings were dominated by concerns about crime. Now they are not. At my meeting in Little Harwood last Friday there were concerns about vandalism to a local play area, and about the state of the War Memorial (both of which I'm following up) but neither the police chief nor I could entice any further crime concerns from those present. It's not that crime has gone away completely, of course not. But there is much higher confidence in the police; the local bobbies are now much better known - and when crime is committed there's a higher chance of the culprits being brought to justice and getting a tougher sentence.
"Tougher prison sentences and tougher policing are working" was the headline on a comment piece in yesterday's Times by a commentator on the right of politics. It's true. Despite adding a record 23,000 places to our prisons in 11 years there's a reason why prisons are bursting at the seams - (and providing more places is my top priority). More crooks are being put away, and for longer. I'm completely unapologetic about that. If they are locked up, they can't go burgling or worse.
We hear a lot about crime busting in the US. They have done well over the last 20 years - but from a time when they faced an epidemic of crime. Even so, the US murder rate, (at 42 per 100,000 population) is three times the UK's (at 14 per 100,000), and gun crime is much higher..
Foreign Prisoners: I wish we didn't have one. Instead we have 11,200. But Germany and Spain have nearly twice as many as us (21,600 each); and we're way down the European league table. Foreign prisoners are 14% of the prison population in England and Wales; 21% in France (so often held up as the tough man of Europe); 28% Germany, 33% Spain; 42% in Greece and Austria, and a whopping 62% in Switzerland (outside the EU, so allegedly with more freedom to do what they want)
Asylum seekers: It's right that like any other civilised nation we should provide a safe haven for those fleeing from real persecution. But not for those who abuse the system. We've become progressively tougher on unfounded asylum seekers. The number of applicants is now at its lowest level since 1993, and deportations are now at record levels. In 2006, for the first time ever, we removed more failed asylum seekers than those making unfounded claims
EU workers So what about all those Poles, and the rest? Unsurprisingly, since after the war we provided a home to so many Poles who'd bravely fought for our freedom as well as theirs during the war, the long established Polish community in east Lancashire has provided a base for the "new" Poles who've come here to work. But across the UK a recent independent report [IPPR.29 April] has estimated that a half of the one million Poles who came here after Poland joined the EU have now left the UK, as Poland's economy improves. Their benefit entitlement applies across Europe. As I explained to the gentleman in the Town Centre last Saturday, he might be complaining about "our" money being spent on benefits for "them"; but go to Spain or France and you'll hear exactly the same complaint - except for "Poles" read "Brits". The hundreds of thousands of UK citizens who've made southern Europe their home do cost the local health and social services a lot of money; and the locals complain. They do about immigration and crime too - and on neither is the record as good as ours.
