By Sam Phripp

The speeches this week by David Cameron and Ed Milliband made for a very interesting bit of bed-time reading. For me, both the Prime Minister and the Labour leader were pretty wide of the mark.

Originally published by LibDem Voice

Ed, as he often does came across as being reactionary. Too scared to be seen to defend looters and join the dots toward massive social injustice but too hidebound by his party to talk about throwing away the key, he was left very much floundering somewhere in the ether; neither talking about the roots of the problem (possibly because they lie a little close to home) nor the solutions. David Cameron was on more comfortable ground altogether, though still not quite hitting the nail on the head for those of us who don’t read the Daily Express. Somewhere aside from the heavy rhetoric of the past few days it has become clear that actually, a more thoughtful, just and – dare I say it – liberal approach is very much needed.

Whilst our policy of restorative justice isn’t the most shiny, vote-winning thing to ever have been conceived, it was considered and thought through for times like these. My partner always says that the difference between a Tory and a Liberal is that a Tory sees a problem, gets angry and takes action and a Liberal sees a problem, gets angry then thinks it through – restorative justice is exactly this. Rather than saying they should all be rounded up and put in front of a firing squad, restorative justice suggests that actually looters (why we’re still calling them looters instead of just thieves is still beyond me) shouldn’t be shoved into already overcrowded and ineffective prisons but should be put straight back into the communities they’ve done their best to destroy, to look their victims in the eye and to help make things right. Whilst the first reaction on seeing the vile and upsetting images from across the country would be to lash out at them – to evict or to imprison – taking a longer view, helping to rehabilitate as well as rebuild can surely be the only way forward.

The Daily Telegraph’s praise of Nick Clegg and this particular policy is a very clear sign that this is a place where we can quite clearly make ground. In this case, our policy isn’t about the difference between right and left but right and wrong. Forcing the offenders to pay-back, not through docked benefits or a custodial sentence but through their hard work and time will help rebuild the communities and lives torn to pieces by last week’s events. Similarly, it would also go some way toward integrating these young people into the law-abiding and fair-minded society to which they’ve shown such flagrant disregard. Regardless of spin, rhetoric or political persuasion, that has to be a good thing.

Cllr Sam Phripp is the youngest councillor ever elected to Mendip District Council