/sarcasm
hehe! It seems that Labour wants to project an image of being tough on crime, in order to beat the Tories in appealing to their own constituency.
Actually, it's refreshing to see the dominant parties battling over who is toughest on crime; the public will be the big winner in that fight.
I would welcome a similar fight from the Dems here in the USA...if they would make a convincing effort to support legislation that's tough on crime, not only would they help to rescue their party from the irrelevancy that it now languishes in, but the quality of life for everyone would be vastly improved.
Imagine....Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and Ted Kennedy all making speeches about how we need to lock up more crack dealers and urban thugs in order to protect the community....I would be in heaven! :-)