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MICHAEL TO TAKE ON THE YOBS

Folkestone and Hythe MP and Tory leader Michael Howard has unveiled plans to encourage the police to take on Britain's street yobs and "wipe the smile" off their faces.

In a keynote speech on crime, he said the police should have the confidence to "eyeball" hooligans, "invade their body space" and challenge and confront their unacceptable behaviour.

And he made clear that an incoming Conservative government would make the police more accountable - by having to publish weekly crime statistics on the internet so that their local communities can see what progress is being made in tackling street crime, hooliganism, and disorder.

"In New York Compstat - the weekly publication of crime statistics division by division - meant the police stopped trying to explain the problem away and started taking action to tackle it. There is a word for it - accountability," Mr Howard said.

After visiting a crime-infested estate in Hackney, Mr Howard vowed that a Conservative government would beef up police muscle power and make a priority of combating thuggery and yob behaviour on the streets.

Accusing Labour ministers of "losing the plot" on crime, he contrasted the way Britain's hard-working majority of people did the right thing, while their lives could be made a misery by the "thriving yob culture" in which hooligans and tearaways did the wrong things - often unchecked.

"Decent hard working families are regularly intimidated by yobs on their streets and in their town centres. It makes me sick that people have to put up with this kind of nonsense. In today's Britain no-one seems prepared to take a stand - to hold these arrogant young yobs to account for their appalling behaviour.

"Instead of yobs being afraid of the police, ordinary folk are afraid of yobs. In Britain we are in real danger of slipping into defensive policing. Mr Blair is creating a culture which puts moral correctness, form filling and box ticking before intervening and confronting criminal behaviour - however minor," he said.

Mr Howard said that under a five point action plan a Conservative government would "put fear back into the hearts of the yobs" by recruiting more police, scrapping central targets, slashing police red tape, making the police publish weekly crime statistics, and giving local people power to decide how their communities are policed.