Our weekly columnist Beatrix Campbell sees Labour's respect agenda failing amid its confusion over child protection

Beatrix Campbell
Wednesday, January 18, 2006

The Government got its comeuppance last week. When Tony Blair launched his Respect and Reform agenda, a hazy but heavy crusade against community crime, low life and, along the way, human rights, he could not have expected what happened. The first thing that happened was general derision for his notion of on-the-spot sanctions. This must have come as a shock after his years of trading on a populist airing of a reactionary law and order agenda. His populism, however, sought the restoration of traditional order, which did not and could not infuse a respect revolution in popular culture.