Tony Blair's Bornemouth Speech

The modern world is different. There is less prejudice, less deference, but also less respect.

It is time to move beyond the social indifference of right and left, libertarian nonsense masquerading as freedom.

This generation wants a society free from prejudice, but not from rules, from order.

A common duty to provide opportunity for all.

An individual duty to be responsible towards all.

There will be a new Crime Bill in The Queen’s Speech.

With the new DNA technology we have the chance to match any DNA at any scene of crime with those on police records. Already thousands of criminals are being caught that way. But less than a fifth are on record.

I can announce we will provide the extra resources for a database where every known offender will have their DNA recorded, and evidence from any scene of crime will be matched with it.

And I saw that we said on drugs and new powers was attacked by civil liberties groups.

I believe in civil liberties too:

• The liberty of parents to drop their kids off at school, without worrying they’re dropping them straight into the arms of drug dealers.
• The liberty of pensioners to live without fear of getting their door kicked in by someone thieving to pay for their habit.
• The liberty of young people to live a full life, not die young, the victim of the most chilling, evil industry the world has to confront.

Civil liberty to me means just that: the liberty to live in a civil society founded on rights and responsibilities, and in dealing with the drugs menace, that is the society we can help to build.