One of the most infuriating things that Ed Balls does is try and claim that every mention of youth crime today is an attempt to demonise an entire generation of children. Take his response when Jackie Ashley asks him about the Tory talk of a broken society:
The answer does, though, reveal how completely Balls and Brown fail to understand the potency of the broken society as an issue. The electorate really aren’t going to be persuaded by Balls’s line that “to say that society is breaking down … says more about the Conservative party than it does about Britain.”“Most kids come out of school, walk home and do their homework, and most kids are probably a member of a club, or play in a sports team, or might do some volunteering. Every generation has always had kids that get into trouble. I got into trouble at school from time to time, like everybody did. There are always going to be some kids that get into more serious trouble with the law, but we shouldn’t demonise young people.”
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