Cameron says society badly broken

12 April 2012

British society is "badly broken", David Cameron has said in the wake of the shootings of three teenage boys in south London.

The Conservative leader said the death of 15-year-old Billy Cox, who was gunned down in his own home on Wednesday, was "deeply depressing".

He told GMTV: "Like everyone else, I was just shocked and appalled and deeply saddened when I watched on the television the pictures of that 15-year-old boy's body being taken out of his house.

"That's what our society's now come to - teenagers shooting other teenagers in their homes at point blank range. It is deeply depressing.

"This goes beyond any one policy or any one government. I think what we need is to recognise our society is badly broken and we need to make some big changes, starting now."

Mr Cameron said family breakdown was at the heart of the social problems which led to the shootings. Governments should ask whether everything they do is helping to strengthen families and keep them together, he said.

The Tory leader told GMTV: "When you look at the people caught up in these events, what you see is a complete absence in many cases of fathers, and a complete presence of family breakdown.

"That, I think, is what's at the heart of it. Yes, we need to stop the guns coming into our country, and we would introduce a border police. Yes, we need to have tough sentences for those who carry guns or deal in guns or use guns. But that's not enough, and we know it's not enough, so let's start the big culture change of encouraging responsibility in our country."

Mr Cameron will pledge that a Conservative government would put family life ahead of economic prosperity for Britain. The Tory leader will say that the report this week by the United Nations children's agency, Unicef, which found the UK was the worst country in the developed world to grow up in, showed that society was in "deep trouble".

In a keynote speech in his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire, he will say that work patterns which damaged family life must change. And he will say that society as a whole must take responsibility for ensuring that young people are instilled with moral values and respect for authority.

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