Anarchy in the UK

The forces of conservatism and societal breakdown have infiltrated public opinion to a disastrous extent, a Guardian/ICM poll reveals.

Despite decades of law and order reform, from Thatcher's short sharp shocks and youth opportunities programmes through the Vicar of Downing Street's offence creation drive to the present chorus of the Glorious Successor, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Daveybloke about our broken society, a majority of electoral resources believe that the Government should stop building prisons and find other ways to deal with criminals.

Fifty-one per cent of those questioned think the Government should find different ways of punishing criminals and deterring crime, and only forty-two per cent think prisons an effective punishment, despite considerable privatisation. Fifty-two per cent of Labour's own electoral ratification personnel do not wish to see more prisons built.

Worst of all, seventy-seven per cent of those asked believe the courts should pass tougher sentences, rather than being overruled by the Government or having their functionality redistributed to the police.