Tony Blair said the country as a whole was not in a 'moral decline'
Writing in the Observer, he warned that "muddle-headed analysis" of the riots may result in wrong policy responses.
Mr Blair also dismissed claims the UK was in the grip of a "moral decline".
In the Sunday Express, PM David Cameron pledged a fightback against the "bureaucratic nonsense and destructive culture" which led to current problems.
'No moral decline'
In rare comments on British politics since standing down as
prime minister in 2007, Mr Blair said the riots were "an absolutely
specific problem that requires a deeply specific solution" by
politicians.
He pointed to a group of people "outside the social
mainstream and who live in a culture at odds with any canons of proper
behaviour".
"Focus on the specific problem and we can begin on a proper solution," he wrote.
"Elevate this into a highfalutin wail about a Britain that
has lost its way morally and we will depress ourselves unnecessarily,
trash our own reputation abroad, and worst of all, miss the chance to
deal with the problem in the only way that will work."
In contrast to David Cameron, Mr Blair does not see the riots
as the symptom of society at large. He says what's required is a
"deeply specific solution".
In some respects though, Mr Blair's analysis seems pretty
similar to Mr Cameron's. Mr Blair writes about the "alienated,
disaffected youth who are outside the social mainstream."
Mr Cameron pointed to the same group when he identified the
120,000 "most troubled" families that the government would be targeting.
Revealingly, Mr Blair admits that he used "highfalutin"
language about a moral breakdown himself, following the murder of the
toddler Jamie Bulger. "It was good politics" he says, "but bad policy".
He added that politicians'
responses to the four days of rioting and looting created a danger of
the "wrong analysis leading to the wrong diagnosis, leading to the wrong
prescription".
He went on to say: "The key is to understand that they aren't
symptomatic of society at large. Failure to get this leads to a
completely muddle-headed analysis of what has gone wrong. Britain as a
whole is not in the grip of some general 'moral decline'.
"The truth is that many of these people are from families
that are profoundly dysfunctional, operating on completely different
terms from the rest of society, either middle class or poor.
"This is a phenomenon of the late 20th Century. You find it in virtually every developed nation."
Bulger case
He also said that, following the murder of two-year-old Jamie
Bulger in 1993, he had "made a case in very similar terms to the one
being heard today about moral breakdown in Britain.
"I now believe that speech was good politics but bad policy."
Mr Blair said that, in relation to the rioting and looting,
it was essential that the police felt they had the backing of the
government.
"The police need to know they have strong support. They need to feel it from politicians and public alike."
He also said that towards the end of his term in office he
realised that society needed an "intervention family by family, a reform
of criminal justice around anti-social behaviour, organised crime,
persistent offenders and gangs".
He said those ideas were not carried out after he left office.
Mr Blair said: "The agenda that came out of this was
conceived in my last years of office, but it had to be attempted against
a constant backdrop of opposition, left and right, on civil liberty
grounds and on the basis we were 'stigmatising' young people.
"After I'd left the agenda lost momentum. But the papers and the work are all there."
Police presence
But in the Sunday Express, Mr Cameron bemoans the culture that has led to the "twisting and misrepresenting of human rights".
David Cameron
Prime Minister
He writes: "There are deep
problems in our society that have been growing for a long time: a
decline in responsibility, a rise in selfishness, a growing sense that
individual rights come before anything else.
"So though it won't be easy, though it will mean taking on
parts of the establishment, I am determined we get a grip on the
misrepresentation of human rights."
Mr Cameron said the government was looking at creating a
British Bill of Rights and would attempt to change the way the European
Court functions.
He said a planned scheme for National Citizen Service, a
non-military and voluntary scheme available for teenagers after they
finish their GCSE exams, would be expanded in the wake of the riots.
This would see youths involved in projects that benefit the community such as sports coaching or helping the elderly.
The prime minister also said that his commitment to tackling
the "greed and thuggery" seen during the riots and episodes of looting
would be backed up by "the full force of the law".
"We need a stronger police presence on the streets, deterring
crime and catching criminals instead of filling in forms or wasting
time on phoney targets," he said.
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