Conservative Party: David Cameron monthly press conference

Conservative Party: David Cameron monthly press conference; David Cameron press conference (continued) SOT - The legislative proposals that Ken Clarke is setting out today are one part of that approach. They include a tough package to fight crime, putting the system on the side of the victim. So, first, tough action on knife crime, which has been the cause of so many tragedies in our communities. Even after all these tragedies far too many people still think they can go out armed with a knife. We need to send the clearest possible message that this simply has to change. So we will introduce, for the first time in legislation, a compulsory jail term for anyone threatening someone with a knife. Second, anyone who’s had squatters in their property will know how incredibly difficult it is to get them out, so we are proposing and will briefly consult on a criminal offence of squatting, to be introduced in this forthcoming Bill. Third, the public have rightly been outraged by some prosecutions of home owners defending their property from criminals. So we’ll put beyond doubt that home owners and small shop keepers who use reasonable force to defend themselves or their properties will not be prosecuted. Alongside the Bill we’re publishing our response to the consultation on sentencing which we published last December. Discounts for early guilty pleas have been part of the criminal justice system for some time and it’s quite right that this should be so. They can help to speed up justice and can mean that victims do not have to relive their ordeal in the court room. In the Green Paper we consulted on a proposal to increase the current discount available for an early guilty plea at the earliest possible stage to 50%. For the most serious crimes we have concluded this would certainly not be right. The sentence served would depart far too much from the sentence handed down by the judge and this is simply not acceptable. We also looked at whether the 50% d...