英国首相卡梅伦承诺修补破碎社会演讲稿英文全文.docx

英国首相卡梅伦修补破碎社会演讲稿英文全文PMs speech on the fightback after the riotsMonday 15 August 2011 Prime Minister David Cameron has delivered a speech in Oxfordshire on the fightback following the riots and looting last week.英国首相卡梅伦日表示，骚乱事件凸显出英国社会已经“破碎”的现状，而自己政治日程的首要任务就是修补这个“破碎的社会”。卡梅伦是在牛津郡发表演讲时做出上述表态的。他否认此次持续数天的骚乱因种族冲突及政府财政削减措施所致，而将骚乱原因归结于骚乱制造者自身性格及他们成长的环境等。卡梅伦在演讲中谴责“不负责任、自私、孩子失去父亲、学校纪律缺失、不劳而获、享有权利却不履行职责”等社会现象，认为“溃烂几十年的社会问题已经在我们面前炸开”。卡梅伦承诺，政府将重新评估教育、福利、文化、社会公平等政府职能，以修复已经“破碎”社会。此外，警方已经彻底改革工作方式，安排更多警察离开办公室到街道巡逻。截至目前，于本月日始于伦敦、蔓延至英国多个城市并持续数天的骚乱已经导致近人被捕，数百人面临指控。以下是英国首相卡梅伦演讲英文全文：It is time for our country to take stock.Last week we saw some of the most sickening acts on our streets.Ill never forget talking to Maurice Reeves, whose family had run the Reeves furniture store in Croydon for generations.This was an 80 year old man who had seen the business he had loved, that his family had built up for generations, simply destroyed.A hundred years of hard work, burned to the ground in a few hours.But last week we didnt just see the worst of the British people; we saw the best of them too.The ones who called themselves riot wombles and headed down to the hardware stores to pick up brooms and start the clean-up.The people who linked arms together to stand and defend their homes, their businesses.The policemen and women and fire officers who worked long, hard shifts, sleeping in corridors then going out again to put their life on the line.Everywhere Ive been this past week, in Salford, Manchester, Birmingham, Croydon, people of every background, colour and religion have shared the same moral outrage and hurt for our country.Because this is Britain.This is a great country of good people.Those thugs we saw last week do not represent us, nor do they represent our young people and they will not drag us down.Why this happenedBut now that the fires have been put out and the smoke has cleared, the question hangs in the air: Why? How could this happen on our streets and in our country?Of course, we mustnt oversimplify.There were different things going on in different parts of the country.In Tottenham some of the anger was directed at the police.In Salford there was some organised crime, a calculated attack on the forces of order.But what we know for sure is that in large parts of the country this was just pure criminality.So as we begin the necessary processes of inquiry, investigation, listening and learning: lets be clear.These riots were not about race: the perpetrators and the victims were white, black and Asian.These riots were not about government cuts: they were directed at high street stores, not Parliament.And these riots were not about poverty: that insults the millions of people who, whatever the hardship, would never dream of making others suffer like this.No, this was about behaviourpeople showing indifference to right and wrongpeople with a twisted moral codepeople with a complete absence of self-restraint.Politicians and behaviourNow I know as soon as I use words like behaviour and moral people will say what gives politicians the right to lecture us?Of course were not perfect.But politicians shying away from speaking the truth about behaviour, about moralitythis has actually helped to cause the social problems we see around us.We have been too unwilling for too long to talk about what is right and what is wrong.We have too often avoided saying what needs to be said about everything frommarriage to welfare to common courtesy.Sometimes the reasons for that are noble we dont want to insult or hurt people.Sometimes theyre ideological we dont feel its the job of the state to try and pass judgement on peoples behaviour or engineer personal morality.And sometimes theyre just human were not perfect beings ourselves and we dont want to look like hypocrites.So you cant say that marriage and commitment are good things for fear of alienating single mothers.You dont deal properly with children who repeatedly fail in school because youre worried about being accused of stigmatising them.Youre wary of talking about those who have never worked and never want to work in case youre charged with not getting it, being middle class and out of touch.In this risk-free ground of moral neutrality there are no bad choices, just different lifestyles.People arent the architects of their own problems, they are victims of circumstance.Live and let live becomes do what you please.Well actually, what last week has shown is that this moral neutrality, this relativism its not going to cut it any more.One of the biggest lessons of these riots is that weve got to talk honestly about behaviour and then act because bad behaviour has literally arrived on peoples doorsteps.And we cant shy away from the truth anymore.Broken society agendaSo this must be a wake-up call for our country.Social problems that have been festering for decades have exploded in our face.Now, just as people last week wanted criminals robustly confronted on our street, so they want to see these social problems taken on and defeated.Our security fightback must be matched by a social fightback.We must fight back against the attitudes and assumptions that have brought parts of our society to this shocking state.We know whats gone wrong: the question is, do we have the determination to put it right?Do we have the determination to confront the slow-motion moral collapse that has taken place in parts of our country these past few generations?Irresponsibility. Selfishness. Behaving as if your choices have no consequences.Children without fathers. Schools without discipline. Reward without effort.Crime without punishment. Rights without responsibilities. Communities without control.Some of the worst aspects of human nature tolerated, indulged sometimes even incentivised by a state and its agencies that in parts have become literally de-moralised.So do we have the determination to confront all this and turn it around?I have the very strong sense that the responsible majority of people in this country not only have that determination; they are crying out for their government to act upon it.And I can assure you, I will not be found wanting.In my very first act as leader of this party I signalled my personal priority: to mend our broken society.That passion is stronger today than ever.Yes, we have had an economic crisis to deal with, clearing up the terrible mess we inherited, and we are not out of those woods yet not by a long way.But I repeat today, as I have on many occasions these last few years, that the reason I am in politics is to build a bigger, stronger society.Stronger families. Stronger communities. A stronger society.This is what I came into politics to do and the shocking events of last week have renewed in me that drive.So I can announce today that over the next few weeks, I and ministers from across the coalition government will review every aspect of our work to mend our broken societyon schools, welfare, families, parenting, addiction, communitieson the cultural, legal, bureaucratic problems in our society too:from the twisting and misrepresenting of human rights that has undermined personalresponsibilityto the obsession with health and safety that has eroded peoples willingness to act according to common sense.We will review our work and consider whether our plans and programmes are big enough and bold enough to deliver the change that I feel this country now wants to see.Government cannot legislate to change behaviour, but it is wrong to think the State is a bystander.Because peoples behaviour does not happen in a vacuum: it is affected by the rules government sets and how they are enforcedby the services government provides and how they are deliveredand perhaps above all by the signals government sends about the kinds of behaviourthat are encouraged and rewarded.So yes, the broken society is back at the top of my agenda.And as we review our policies in the weeks ahead, today I want to set out the priority areas I will be looking at, and give you a sense of where I think we need to raise our ambitions.Security fightbackFirst and foremost, we need a security fight-back.We need to reclaim our streets from the thugs who didnt just spring out of nowherelast week, but whove been making lives a misery for years.Now I know there have been questions in peoples minds about my approach to law and order.Well, I dont want there to be any doubt.Nothing in this job is more important to me than keeping people safe.And it is obvious to me that to do that weve got to be tough, weve got to be robust, weve got to score a clear line between right and wrong right through the heart of this country in every street and in every community.That starts with a stronger police presence pounding the beat, deterring crime, ready to re-group and crack down at the first sign of trouble.Let me be clear: under this government we will always have enough police officers to be able to scale up our deployments in the way we saw last week.To those who say this means we need to abandon our plans to make savings in police budgets, I say you are missing the point.The point is that what really matters in this fight-back is the amount of time the police actually spend on the streets.For years weve had a police force suffocated by bureaucracy, officers spending the majority of their time filling in forms and stuck behind desks.This wont be fixed by pumping money in and keeping things basically as theyve been.As the Home Secretary will explain tomorrow, it will be fixed by completely changing the way the police work.Scrapping the paperwork that holds them back, getting them out on the streets where people can see them and criminals can fear them.Our reforms mean that the police are going to answer directly to the people.You want more tough, no-nonsense policing?You want to make sure the police spend more time confronting the thugs in your neighbourhood and less time meeting targets by stopping motorists?You want the police out patrolling your streets instead of sitting behind their desks?Elected police and crime commissioners are part of the answer: they will provide that direct accountability so you can finally get what you want when it comes to policing.The point of our police reforms is not to save money, not to change things for the sake of it but to fight crime.And in the light of last week its clear that we now have to go even further, even faster in beefing up the powers and presence of the police.Already weve given backing to measures like dispersal orders, were toughening curfew powers, were giving police officers the power to remove face coverings from rioters, were looking at giving them more powers to confiscate offenders property and over the coming months youre going to see even more.Its time for something else too.A concerted, all-out war on gangs and gang culture.This isnt some side issue.It is a major criminal disease that has infected streets and estates across our country.Stamping out these gangs is a new national priority.Last week I set up a cross-government programme to look at every aspect of this problem.We will fight back against gangs, crime and the thugs who make peoples lives hell and we will fight back hard.The last front in that fight is proper punishment.On the radio last week they interviewed one of the young men whod been looting in Manchester.He said he was going to carry on until he got caught.This will be my first arrest, he said.The prisons were already overflowing so hed just get an ASBO, and he could live with that.Well, weve got to show him and everyone like him that the partys over.I know that when politicians talk about punishment and tough sentencing people roll their eyes.Yes, last week we saw the criminal justice system deal with an unprecedented challenge: the courts sat through the night and dispensed swift, firm justice.We saw that the system was on the side of the law-abiding majority.But confidence in the system is still too low.And believe me I understand the anger with the level of crime in our country today and I am determined we sort it out and restore peoples faith that if someone hurts our society, if they break the rules in our society, then society will punish them for it.And we will tackle the hard core of people who persistently reoffend and blight the lives of their communities.So no-one should doubt this governments determination to be tough on crime and to mount an effective security fight-back.But we need much more than that.We need a social fight-back too, with big changes right through our society.Families and parentingLet me start with families.The question people asked over and over again last week was where are the parents?Why arent they keeping the rioting kids indoors?Tragically thats been followed in some cases by judges rightly lamenting: “why dont the parents even turn up when their children are in court?”Well, join the dots and you have a clear idea about why some of these young peoplewere behaving so terribly.Either there was no one at home, they didnt much care or theyd lost control.Families matter.I dont doubt that many of the rioters out last week have no father at home.Perhaps they come from one of the neighbourhoods where its standard for children to have a mum and not a dadwhere its normal for young men to grow up without a male role model, looking to the streets for their father figures, filled up with rage and anger.So if we want to have any hope of mending our broken society, family and parenting is where weve got to start.Ive been saying this for years, since before I was Prime Minister, since before I was leader of the Conservative Party.So: from here on I want a family test applied to all domestic policy.If it hurts families, if it undermines commitment, if it tramples over the values that keeps people together, or stops families from being together, then we shouldnt do it.More than that, weve got to get out there and make a positive difference to the way families work, the way people bring up their childrenand weve got to be less sensitive to the charge that this is about interfering or nannying.We are working on ways to help improve parenting well now I want that work accelerated, expanded and implemented as quickly as possible.This has got to be right at the top of our priority list.And we need more urgent action, too, on the families that some people call problem, others call troubled.The ones that everyone in their neighbourhood knows and often avoids.Last December I asked Emma Harrison to develop a plan to help get these families on track.It became clear to me earlier this year that as can so often happen those plans were being held back by bureaucracy.So even before the riots happened, I asked for an explanation.Now that the riots have happened I will make sure that we clear away the red tape and the bureaucratic wrangling, and put rocket boosters under this programmewith a clear ambition that within the lifetime of this Parliament we will turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families in the country.SchoolsThe next part of the social fight-back is what happens in schools.We need an education system which reinforces the message that if you do the wrong thing youll be disciplinedbut if you work hard and play by the rules you will succeed.This isnt a distant dream.Its already happening in schools like Woodside High in Tottenham and Mossbourne in Hackney.They expect high standards from every child and make no excuses for failure to work hard.They foster pride through strict uniform and behaviour policies.And they provide an alternative to street culture by showing how anyone can get up and get on if they apply themselves.Kids from Hammersmith and Hackney are now going to top universities thanks to these schools.We need many more like them which is why we are creating more academieswhy the people behind these success stories are now opening free schoolsand why we have pledged to turn round the 200 weakest secondaries and the 200weakest primaries in the next year.But with the failures in our education system so deep, we cant just say these are our plans and we believe in them, lets sit back while they take effect.I now want us to push further, faster.Are we really doing enough to ensure that great new schools are set up in the poorestareas, to help the children who need them most?And why are we putting up with the complete scandal of schools being allowed to fail, year after year?If young people have left school without being able to read or write, why shouldnt that school be held more directly accountable?Yes, these questions are already being asked across government but what happened last week gives them a new urgency and we need to act on it.Respect for communityJust as we want schools to be proud of we want everyone to feel proud of their communities.We need a sense of social responsibility at the heart of every community.Yet the truth is that for too long the big bossy bureaucratic state has drained it away.Its usurped local leadership with its endless Whitehall diktats.Its frustrated local organisers with its rules and regulationsAnd its denied local people any real kind of say over what goes on where they live.Is it any wonder that many people dont feel they have a stake in their community?This has got to change. And were already taking steps to change it.Thats why we want execut