Date published: 2008/09/01
The BBC says:
Crime levels are set to rise because of the economic downturn, according to a leaked Home Office letter.
The draft letter to Downing Street said rising property crime and violent crime, and increased hostility to migrants, were likely.
It also forecast more smuggling of fuel, alcohol and tobacco.
Home Office minister Tony McNulty said the letter was a "statement of the blindingly obvious", as it was clear crime may go up in the slowdown.
The letter was draft advice which had not been cleared by home secretary Jacqui Smith and had not been sent to Number 10, the Home Office said.
The letter based its suggestions about property crime, such as burglary, and violent crime on the experience of the recession in the early 1990s.
It said if the economic slowdown was on a similar scale over the next couple of years, property crime would be likely to rise by 7% in 2008 and a further 2% in 2009.
...
Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "It is deeply disturbing that a department as shambolic as the Home Office already faces such problems as a result of the economic downturn. It is patently not equipped to cope. Why haven't they prepared for this?
Good for McNulty, standing his ground rather than pandering to an inane BBC report. Needless to say, the state of the economy is only one factor that is linked with crime, and other factors, e.g. how many youngish men there are in society from deprived socioeconomic backgrounds, could well be more important. So McNulty rather overstates the "blindingly obvious" bit, but his basic point is sound. It seems the BBC feels the need to grandstand any statement that indicates the government believes the world does not get inextricably better with every five year plan. And the media wonders why no politician ever speaks honestly. Well, even worse than the BBC, the statement by Dominic Grieve is just plain pathetic.
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