TONY BLAIR criticised parents yesterday for failing to bring up their children properly as he made the restoration of respect and an end to yobbish behaviour priorities for his remaining time as Prime Minister.

He said that the election campaign had shown him time and again that one of the main worries of the people was the lack of respect shown by some, particularly the young, towards others; and the genuine fear of some middle-aged and elderly people about going to towns and shopping centres because of the unruly behaviour of a minority.

“Respect towards other people is a modern yearning as much as a traditional one,” Mr Blair said, adding that while he could bring in new laws he could not raise people’s children for them.

He signalled a cross-government attack on the problem, which will include the Home Office, the Education Department and his new Minister for Communities, David Miliband.

Mr Blair was speaking after the Cabinet had agreed a mammoth programme of 40 Bills for the Queen’s Speech on Tuesday. The size of the programme is designed to demonstrate Mr Blair’s and the Government’s appetite for the coming years in spite of the big reduction in Labour’s majority.

As examples of what the Government could do, he highlighted measures that would be contained in the Queen’s Speech to raise the age limit for buying knives, to introduce compulsory drug testing on arrest, to tackle binge drinking and to strengthen and extend antisocial behaviour legislation. He also promised to hold talks with head teachers to discover what new powers they needed in the classroom to improve discipline.

He said there were deepseated causes of rowdy and disrespectful behaviour. They were to do “with family life in the way that parents regard their responsibility to their children, in the way that some kids grow up generation to generation without proper parenting, without a proper sense of discipline within the family”.

“I cannot solve all these problems,” he said. “I can start a debate on this and I can legislate. What I cannot do is raise someone’s children for them.”

Mr Blair, and John Prescott earlier, supported the actions of the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent in banning baseball caps and hoods because they can be intimidating.

He said people were fed up with street corner and shopping centre thugs, binge drinking, vandalism and graffiti. A small minority were making the law-abiding majority afraid and angry.

“During the election campaign I heard too often people talk about a loss of respect in the classroom, on the street corner, in the way our hard-working public servants are treated as they perform their tasks,” he said.

The Government, and society as a whole, had to address the problem. “A few years ago when I began the debate on antisocial behaviour there were some who thought it gimmicky, even eccentric,” he said.

Those measures had faced vigorous opposition from critics. However, they had had a real impact but they were only ever part of a much bigger picture painted for him “time and again” during the election.

“People like a society that is less deferential,” he said. “They want a society free from old prejudices. But a loss of deference is very different from a loss of respect for other people.

“Society without prejudice should not be one without rules. People are rightly fed up with street corner and shopping centre thugs, yobbish behaviour sometimes from children as young as 10 or 11 whose parents should be looking after them, Friday and Saturday night binge drinking which makes our town centre no-go areas for respectable citizens, of the low-level graffiti, vandalism and disorder that is the work of a very small minority that makes the law-abiding majority afraid and angry.”

Law-abiding people should not be put in fear; they should not be frightened of going down to the shops. He had met men during the campaign who said that they were afraid to take their wives to a town centre on a Friday or Saturday night.

“I object to that. That is wrong. If people want to have a few drinks, that is all right. But they don’t have to beat the place up.”

• A Cabinet minister has persuaded Tony Blair to revert his department’s name back to the original after it became an object of derision. The Department of Productivity, Energy and Industry had replaced the Department of Trade and Industry in last week’s reshuffle but its head, Alan Johnson, said last night that it would go back to its original. He admitted that the new title had attracted ridicule and that the rebranding costs involved were unjustified.

  BILLS OF FARE

• ID cards Bill, providing for use of biometric data such as fingerprints and a national register
  
  
• Asylum and immigration Bill, bringing in a points system for migrant workers
  
  
• Violent crime reduction Bill, raising the limit for buying knives to 18 and restricting sale of replica guns
  
  
• Anti-terrorism Bill introducing new offence of commiting acts preparatory to terrorism
  
  
• Regulatory reform Bill cutting back Whitehall red tape
  
  
• Work and families Bill extending maternity pay and shared house purchase schemes for low-income households
  
  
• Education and skills Bill allowing successful schools to take over the badly performing ones, and speeding up the arrival of city academies across the country
  
  
• Health improvement and protection Bill to ban smoking in enclosed public places
  
  
• Incapacity benefit Bill to subject claimants to tougher tests

  How should yobs be dealt with?
  Send your e-mails to debate@thetimes.co.uk

Explore UK News

• Crime News

• Education News

• Health News

• Science News

• Scotland News

Times Recommends

• Sarah Brown says 'no thanks' to veal at G8 - twice
• Stockton-on-Tees is obesity capital of Britain
• Stores blame poor sales on Murray factor