In the aftermath of the riots that tore across England’s major cities last week, Prime Minister, David Cameron, has promised to place healing Britain’s “broken society” right at the top of the Government’s agenda.
“The broken society is back at the top of my political agenda,” insisted Mr Cameron.
“I have an ambition, before the end of this parliament, we will turn around the lives of 120,000 most troubled families.
“We need more urgent action too, on the families that some people call ‘problem’, others call ‘troubled’. The ones that everyone in their neighbourhood knows and often avoids.”
The Prime Minister agreed with those who last week pointed to the disintegration of families and family life as being one of the main causes of the riots, and he also spoke of a “moral collapse.”
Mr Cameron said: “The question people asked over and over again last week was ‘where are the parents? … Well, join the dots and you have a clear idea about why some of these young people were behaving so terribly.
“Either there was no one at home, they didn’t much care or they’d lost control.”
Mr Cameron blamed an “indifference to right and wrong” and the “criminal disease” of gangs that have “infected streets and estates across our country”.
“Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face,” he said.
To try and counter the “very modern” problem of “alienated, angry young people”, Mr Cameron also announced plans to have 16-year-olds take part in non-military national service.
(Image shows damage done in the Clapham Junction area).