Sajid Javid had an unfortunate slip of the tongue in his speech at the Conservative conference this week, saying his party will “fight hope”, rather than the scripted “fight hate with hope”. It was perhaps not entirely inaccurate. Peddling that all-too-familiar line that cocaine use among middle-class professionals is fuelling the devastating surge in violent crime will leave few with hope.
Using this line of argument as the motivation to announce a costly review of nationwide habits in order to understand the drugs market and to essentially crack down on substance abuse, should, in fact, leave us with a feeling of despair. The very mention of the need for such a study immediately blows holes in his argument. If the home secretary is so certain of this apparent correlation between stabbings and shootings and the drugs trade, why is more evidence needed to prove it before taking decisive action to tackle the real problems?
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