THE COARSENING OF DECLINE:

Fear is the key as Blair apes Bush's victory plan (BRIAN BRADY, 11/21/04, The Scotsman)

TONY Blair will place national security and crime at the heart of his bid for a third term in Downing Street under a ‘scare’ strategy similar to the one that helped return George W Bush to the White House.

‘Operation Third Term’, led by campaign supremo Alan Milburn, has identified the issues of fighting terrorism and boosting public safety as the hard edge of a campaign originally intended to focus on reforms to public services.

Beginning with this week’s Queen’s Speech, Labour’s pitch will now be a naked appeal to the electorate’s most fundamental concerns, a strategy known in the US as appealing to the ‘security moms’. [...]

Blair’s legislative programme, to be unveiled on Tuesday, contains 28 proposed new bills, plus eight draft bills, and has been drawn together under the theme of "safety and security".

It includes proposals to introduce long-awaited plans to create a national identity card, which will be sold as a crucial defence against international terrorists, some of whom the government believes are already at large in British cities.

Labour will also unveil plans to create a Serious Organised Crime Agency to tackle the ‘Mr Bigs’ of the crime underworld.

There will also be a clampdown on convicted drug offenders, who will be forced to undergo rehabilitation schemes. Police may also be able to enforce mandatory drugs tests on anyone they arrest.

And Labour also aims to win over Middle England with further sanctions on antisocial behaviour, giving courts the power to impose fines on the parents of children as young as 10.

The developing strategy, thrashed out with Blair and the Leader of the House of Commons, Peter Hain, is designed to capitalise on widespread public concerns about safety.

Interesting how caricature can become so enduring that it trumps reality--not that the campaign will focus, in part, on crime, which Europeans claim is a uniquely American problem, though it has played no role in recent American politics. It is a non-issue here these days.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 21, 2004 9:22 AM