British prime minister David Cameron today promised a law-and-order "fightback" and robust action to mend what he called Britain's broken society after riots and looting last week.
But he faced renewed questions and heckling over how far his plans to cut government spending may further alienate the young and the poor.
In a speech likely to please his Conservative supporters, Mr Cameron vowed more "no-nonsense policing" and tougher sentencing to tackle gang culture and known troublemakers, and said he would to do more to promote families, boost discipline in schools and encourage hard work.
"We have been too unwilling for too long to talk about what is right and wrong," Mr Cameron said in the address at a youth centre in his mostly affluent constituency of Witney, near Oxford.
Mr Cameron was subjected to hostile whistling on arrival, however. After his televised speech, he took questions from journalists until a reporter chided him for not responding directly to young people in the audience. The prime minister later left to the sounds of hecklers clucking like chickens, as teenagers accused him of leaving early and being too scared to answer all of their questions.
In his speech, Mr Cameron blamed the trouble on a society where fathers abandon families, gangs flout the law and people refuse to take responsibility for their actions.
He said the past week had been a "wake-up call" for the country. "Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face.We saw the best of British people as well as the worst last week.The thugs that we saw last week do not represent the young people of Britain.
"Now, just as people wanted criminals robustly confronted on our street, so they want to see these problems taken on and defeated. Our security fightback must be matched by a social fightback," he said.
“What we know for sure is that in large parts of the country this was just pure criminality. So, as we begin the necessary processes of inquiry, investigation, listening and learning, let’s be clear. These riots were not about race: the perpetrators and the victims were white, black and Asian.
“These riots were not about Government cuts; they were directed at high street stores, not parliament, and these riots were not about poverty: that insults the millions of people who, whatever the hardship, would never dream of making others suffer like this.
“No, this was about people showing indifference to right and wrong, people with a twisted moral code, people with a complete absence of self-restraint," the prime minister said.
But the young audience was unimpressed, pointing the finger at public spending cuts, inequality and higher university fees which they fear will widen the gap between society's haves and have-nots.
"He is blaming everyone but himself," said Jake Parkinson (17), who is unemployed. "The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. I'd love to go to university, but it's the money that is putting me off."
"He wants people to get in touch with their families, but for some people their families aren't there and the youth centre is the only place where they can talk to people," said Ryan Clayton (15). "But he's shutting all the youth centres".
More than 2,800 people have been arrested since a protest over a fatal shooting by police on August 4th prompted rioting and looting in the London district of Tottenham. The riots spread across the capital and sparked violence in other English cities.
Planned austerity measures have put Mr Cameron on a collision course with the police, still smarting over his criticism of their initial response to the riots. Police chiefs say a 20 per cent cut in their budget over the next four years will make it harder for them to maintain law and order.
They have been angered by Mr Cameron's decision to seek advice from William Bratton, a US police chief who has worked in Boston, New York and Los Angeles and is considered an expert at tackling gang culture.
"I am not sure I want to learn about gangs from an area of America that has 400 of them," Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said.
London's Conservative mayor, Boris Johnson, has also said now is not the time for cuts to spending on police. But the prime minister has refused to back down on plans to ease austerity measures, believing jittery financial markets will take fright at any sign of backtracking on plans to erase by 2015 a budget deficit that peaked at over 10 per cent of national output.
Labour leader Ed Miliband said a lack of morality was not confined to a "feral underclass" but was also displayed by risk-taking bankers, legislators who fiddled their expenses and newspaper reporters who hacked telephones for stories.
"When we talk about the sick behaviour of those without power, let's also talk about the sick behaviour of those with it," he said in a speech at his old school in London today.
Reuters