When Parliament was recalled to discuss the riots, the Prime Minister announced a series of robust measures to tackle the problem and described the events as “criminality pure and simple” and stressed there was no excuse for such behaviour. He made clear, “We will not put up with this in our country. We will not allow a culture of fear to exist on our streets. And we will do whatever it takes to restore law and order and to rebuild our communities.”
He set out the three key priorities on which the Government’s response is focussed:
1. Restoring order, with a series of measures to help ensure more robust and effective policing, such as allowing the police to remove face coverings where there is reasonable suspicion that they are related to criminal activity;
2. Supporting the victims, with, for example, a new £20 million high street support scheme to help affected businesses get back up and running quickly, and making compensation available under the Riot Damages Act; and
3. Tackling the deeper problems, taking the action necessary to fix our broken society.
David Cameron concluded by saying:
“This is a time for our country to pull together. To the law abiding people who play by the rules, and who are the overwhelming majority in this country, I say the fightback has begun, we will protect you, if you’ve had your livelihood and property damaged, we will compensate you. We are on your side.”
“And to the lawless minority, the criminals who’ve taken what they can get, I say: we will track you down, we will find you, we will charge you, we will punish you. You will pay for what you have done.”
12th August 2011
