On Monday, 3rd September, the Sylvans debated the motion:
This House believes that Boris Johnson’s plans for police and prisons are the best solution to the rise in serious crime.
It was proposed by Ina Negoita and opposed by Bill Moss.
The proposer opened with a very clear overview of the recently proposed changes to the criminal justice system, ranging from extra officers to refurbished prison places, to increased stop and search, along with greater funding for the Crown Prosecution Service. She made it abundantly clear that these policies – while announced by Boris Johnson on a law-and-order footing – would actually simply enforce existing laws more forcefully, rather than fundamentally change the criminal justice system.
The opposer challenged the premise of the motion regarding serious crime, sharing that since the 1990s the London murder rate declined rapidly, comparing favourably to other major cities. He also questioned whether there were really any new policy elements to Boris’s plans, and argued that they would take conditions back to when the Conservatives took power in 2010. He rued the loss of funding for community and youth centres, and suggested that more funding for those would drive down crime more than additional police. He forcefully claimed that stop and search policing is problematic due to racial bias, and also advocated for legalising cannabis and decriminalising other drugs. He made a strong case that Boris’s privileged upbringing leads him to believe he has his own ‘private law’ that only applies to him and others like him.
Floor speeches ranged across a wide variety of related issues, and touched particularly on stop and search and rehabilitation of prisoners, as well as of course a number of threads discussing Boris as the new PM. In the rebuttals the proposer provided several examples of ‘white-collar’ crime where none of the perpetrators went to jail, continuing his ‘private law’ theme, while the opposer strongly appealed to rationality and asked the house to consider the policy proposals on merit rather than in the context of the current political situation.
In the final vote the motion was defeated.