THE DO-GOODERS

Dave Cameron has caused widespread ridicule this last week with his latest rebranding exercise for the Tory party. This was his modern version on Blair’s ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ slogan.

Dave’s slogan has been dubbed ‘hug a hoodie’.

In a speech to the Centre for Social Justice, founded by Iain Duncan Smith, Dave told his audience that hoodies were really misunderstood victims of a deprived upbringing who needed more love and understanding:

‘You heard earlier from Femi, the star of Kidulthood.
That film is set in my own neighbourhood in London - North Kensington, Ladbroke Grove, Harrow Road.
It's a very different Notting Hill from the one you see in Richard Curtis films.
The film gives a disturbing insight into the pressures that teenagers round there are under.
The fact is, it's frightening for a man in a suit to walk down certain streets at night.
But think how much more frightening it must be for a child.
Kidulthood is not really about bad kids.
Even the villain is clearly suffering from neglect and the absence of love.
The characters are simply children in circumstances none of us would want to grow up in.
Their reaction to those circumstances is not good.
But it is natural.
Crime, drugs, underage sex - this behaviour is wrong, but simply blaming the kids who get involved in it doesn't really get us much further.
It is what the culture around them encourages.’

And:

‘In May last year, hoodies became political.
The Bluewater shopping centre banned them, and the Prime Minister said he backed the ban.
I actually think it's quite right for politicians to debate these matters.
But debating the symptoms rather than the causes won't get us very far.
Because the fact is that the hoodie is a response to a problem, not a problem in itself.
We - the people in suits - often see hoodies as aggressive, the uniform of a rebel army of young gangsters.
But, for young people, hoodies are often more defensive than offensive.
They're a way to stay invisible in the street.
In a dangerous environment the best thing to do is keep your head down, blend in, don't stand out.
For some, the hoodie represents all that's wrong about youth culture in Britain today.
For me, adult society's response to the hoodie shows how far we are from finding the long-term answers to put things right.
Camila Bhatmanghelidj, of the visionary social enterprise, Kids Company, understands.
In her new book, Shattered Lives, there is an account of a girl whose pastime it was to "steal smiles", as she put it.
To viciously hurt people in the street who she saw smiling.
It's the only thing that would give her pleasure.
Of course we should condemn her behaviour.
But that's the easy part.
Because if you knew that that girl had suffered years of abuse and neglect from her family, and years of institutional indifference from the social services you would begin to understand that there is more to life on the streets than simple crime and simple punishment.
That girl is getting better now, thanks to the deep understanding and patient work of Kids Company.’

And:

‘So we have to have justice - we have to fight crime firmly and completely.
Justice is about setting boundaries, and stepping over those boundaries should have painful consequences.
But that's not the whole answer.
To build a safe and civilised society for the long term, we have to look at what goes on inside the boundaries.
If the consequence of stepping over the line should be painful, then staying within the bounds of good behaviour should be pleasant.
And I believe that inside those boundaries we have to show a lot more love.
We have to think about the emotional quality of the work we do with young people.
That's where you, the social entrepreneurs, the voluntary organisations - the people doing the patient, painstaking work on the ground with young people - come in.
If the police and criminal justice system guard the boundaries of acceptable behaviour - patrolling the territory beyond the pale - then community groups populate the interior.
If the police stand for sanctions and penalties, you stand for love.
And not a soppy love! I don't see anyone soppy here.
But it is about relationships.
It is about emotional security.
It is about love.’

For those who might be tempted to give a mugger a great big cuddle, they should bear in mind the fact that the reason why the Bluewater shopping centre banned hoodies was because they were using the hoods to hide their faces from the CCTV cameras, and so avoid identification when committing crimes. It had nothing to do with blending in - apart from avoiding detection.

It seems that Dave is struggling to understand the difference between the fiction of the film Kidulthood and reality.