Quietly, with barely a whimper, the Blair “Respect” agenda dies:
What a difference a year makes. Exactly 12 months ago, Tony Blair launched a major push for his flagship ‘Respect’’ programme. He promised towns and cities extra help to curb anti-social behaviour. Local authorities were also to be issued with a “respect handbook” telling them what to do.
In the criminal justice field, ‘’respect’’ was all the rage, with a special government task force headed by a ‘’tsar’’ reporting directly to the prime minister.
Now we learn that this whole edifice was quietly dismantled before Christmas.
The taskforce has been closed down and Louise Casey, its high profile and energetic head, has been moved to another job.
Well, good riddance to that. I, for one, will weep no tears at the funeral. Respect is something that is earned, not decreed – and, frankly, Blair displayed a remarkable lack of it towards his employers (us). Respect is not something with which I view Blair, his cyclopean successor or the whole rancid shower of parasitic control freaks who spent the last ten years dismantling anything that was good about this nation. No, the word I am looking for is “contempt”.
Contempt, I can advise, is in rude health and imbued with unseemly vigour.