Leading article: Love isn’t all you need

The language of priorities is the religion of socialism, said Nye Bevan. In fact, the setting of priorities is the basis of all practical politics. This is one of many reasons that David Cameron’s speech on social justice and crime this week was his worst error to date. It suggested — to an alarming extent — that his concerns do not mesh with those of the public.

Some of what the Tory leader said about the breakdown of the traditional family and poor standards of education was sound enough. Much of his speech to the Centre for Social Justice consisted of forgettable bromides. But his remarks on ‘hoodies’ — whether a gimmick or a protestation of sincere principle — were a grave error.

To say that ‘hoodies are more defensive than offensive’ was an insult to every nervous mother pushing her pram through a group of young and menacing men on a street corner. ‘When you see a child walking down the road, hoodie up, head down, moody, swaggering, dominating the pavement,’ the Tory leader said, ‘think what has brought that child to that moment.’ In such circumstances, most sane people — quite understandably — are not carrying out a sociological audit but hoping that they will not be insulted, threatened or even attacked. For Mr Cameron to demand such a response from the public — more ‘love’ for the poor afflicted ‘hoodie’ — suggested a worrying detachment from the reality of urban life.

The Prime Minister does not have the answers to violent crime and the surge in antisocial behaviour. But he is well aware of popular feeling on these issues. In May he said that the criminal justice system was ‘still the public service most distant from what reasonable people want’.