Labour looks to talk to the streets through Smith's announcements

Jacqui Smith's prouncements over the last 24 hours may well be signaling the move of the Labour party back to the issues on the streets.

Yesterday's reversal on the classification of cannabis,whilst not popular with the medical fraternity is popular with middle England who see drugs as the causes of social and criminal problems.The fact that this particular drug is the least of our worries is neither here nor there as far as policy goes.

Today the Home secretary moves towards one of the biggest worries on the street,the gangs of youths who hang around intimidating the general public.

Speaking at Westminster,bbc online reports her remarks

Youths who persistently misbehave and intimidate others in their communities should be "harassed themselves",

and some of the measures may include

repeated home visits and checks to identify benefit fraud or council and road tax non-payment.

The moves follow the success of a similar initiative in Basildon Essex where

Dramatic" results from the new approach included burglaries, criminal damage and car crime stopping altogether on one estate during the operation and staying at a low level afterwards.
"Those responsible for anti-social behaviour had no room for manoeuvre and nowhere to hide," Ms Smith said of the operation.

You can read the complete details here courtesy of Politics home