Speech by: David Lammy MP
Venue: at Sir George Monoux Sixth Form College, Walthamstow
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Good morning everyone.
I’d like to begin by thanking Kate Anderson for inviting me to talk to you today.
I must also thank Kim Clifford and the staff of George Monoux College for hosting this seminar.
This institution has, in one form or another, been serving the people of this part of London, including some of my constituents, for many hundreds of years.
I’m delighted that it continues to do so in its current role as a 6th-form college with a commitment to excellence that has been recognised by Ofsted among others.
I know very well how valuable the work colleges are already doing is.
You are at the coal face, not just supporting young people, but often very vulnerable young people; supporting their parents and making second life chances a reality for newly arrived ethnic minorities, ex-offenders and those with special needs.
This is work that goes unsung, and requires immense expertise, which is absolutely why you are at the forefront of the battle against gangs, guns and knives.
It’s my hope and belief that the website that we’re launching today, the resources and the practical experience that it will allow colleges to share, will play its part in taking that work to a new level.
However, I have also to admit that it’s not only these things that bring me here this morning.
I’m here because I am a black man who grew up in Tottenham during the 1980s.
The Tottenham of 25% Unemployment; the Tottenham of the Broadwater Farm riots; the Tottenham of the racially profiled stop and search.
And today, I am speaking as the MP of that Tottenham.
The Tottenham where, despite improvements, unemployment remains higher than the UK average.
The Tottenham where in some wards, life expectancy is 7 years lower than wards that are only 2 miles away.
I am also here because I’m a husband and a father, and one day, my two boys may be passing through colleges like this one.
After all, what parent doesn’t stay awake at night worrying about their youngsters?
What parent doesn’t fret about the safety of the local neighbourhood? Or worry about their children’s peers and friends?
So yes, when I see police outside the school gates, I feel safer.
When I hear that the Met’ are placing metal detectors at bus stops and at school gates, yes, I feel more secure.
But I know that stronger and more active policing isn’t enough.
The problem of gangs, guns and knives is solved by asking questions bigger than how many police are on the beat.
It’s a bigger question than whether to increase police powers to stop and search.
It’s a bigger question than how long should mandatory firearm sentences should be.
It’s bigger than a poster campaign.
Because many young men who carry knives or guns do so not because they hope to use them, or even because they fear they might need to. They carry them as symbols of status and power.
This is an age where youths are now transfixed by the increasingly seductive language of gang culture.
A language of get rich or die trying.
A language of fast cars and faster lives.
A language of impulse and the instantaneous, and “now” over sacrifice, delayed gratification and self-discipline.
A language which replaces the social values that once knitted communities together with a destructive law of the street.
These issues raise profound questions that we are now asking about our age.
The repercussion of living,
The repercussions of relentless consumerism,
The burden of over-commercialisation,
The reality of whether choice truly exists for the vulnerable in society.
The reason that language appeals so much, and why that resonates so deeply, is because of what it means to grow up in the 21st century.
Young adulthood is tumultuous at the best of times. My own was so because my father left us at 12.
But when he did, I had a rich network of support that provided me with the role models and father figures that would guide me and mentor me through that period regardless.
But some of the networks and people that helped me through the most – youth workers, teachers and my local priest for example – are those most pressured, or rapidly eroding away, in the 21st century.
We no longer go to church in the numbers that we used to.
Our families are smaller, and far more dispersed that they have ever been in the past.
In this world of declining kinship, decaying traditional social structures, and less deference a vacuum emerges in the lives of vulnerable young men.
And it is in this vacuum in which the gangs and gang culture flourish.
For the 59% of Black Caribbean children in this country who are growing up fatherless, their understanding of masculinity is at risk of being defined by the street and its warped notions of power, status and respect.
If the prevailing culture that our youths encounter is one where displays of wealth and the cultivation of fear are the sole indicators of respect, it is no surprise that gang culture is as widespread as we fear it to be.
Gangs and criminality becomes a short cut to symbols of wealth and power that will otherwise take years of hard work to achieve.
Yes, part of the solution to our problems must lie in effective enforcement and the police have had some success.
Gun and knife amnesties in London and other cities have worked well.
And lessons about how to organise policing in ways that draw on the support of vulnerable communities rather than alienating them have been learned from the mistakes of the past.
But the problem of gangs, guns and knives is clearly a cultural problem.
It is a question of parenting, in particular fatherhood.
How do we provide the networks of support to young adults where one or both parents are absent?
It is a question of the quality and presence of role models in the lives of young men.
How can we change the aspirations of our young people to value decent ordinary people as opposed to the superficial glamour of the drug dealer?
It is a question of neighbourhood.
We know it takes a village to raise a child.
And colleges, schools, churches and civic society are in loco parentis alongside the grass-roots movements that have brought ordinary people onto the street to say “no” to guns and knives, like Mothers Against Guns, the Haringey Peace Alliance and Value Life
They are a powerful force for good in society and we shouldn’t underestimate what they are doing to change attitudes, especially among the young.
For example, I’m proud to have been involved in setting-up the Government’s Tackling Gangs Action Programme when I was Skills Minister two years ago.
The programme aimed to reduce serious violence, particularly the use of firearms, perpetrated by young people as part of gang-related activity in London, Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham.
And I pay tribute to the response from colleges the AoC and LSIS, who have helped steer the programme.
That’s why we are giving our full support to our partners in the further education sector and the voluntary sector, to help them find ways in which they can contribute to tackling gun and knife crime.
And it’s also why your involvement in this event is so important in shaping the next steps that we must take together.
The website that I am launching today will further contribute to the effort of tackling the culture of gangs, knives and guns.
It is a website that allows the colleges on the front line to share the crucial information about best practices and services that ensures we are all united in fighting the causes of this problem.
It is no longer the case that there are just a handful of organisations committed to fighting gangs, there now exists a coherent and co-ordinated movement across the public and private sector, which I am proud to say that Further Education colleges are at the centre of.
I’d therefore like to thank those colleges and other parts of the sector who have contributed to the work of the steering group, who have provided case studies or who have simply shared their views and experiences through their responses to the consultation.
And I’d particularly like to thank the steering group itself, which includes representatives from across the sector, for taking the lead in making sure this work has been developed by colleges for colleges.
It’s time for every college to take its full place alongside other local agencies in the urgent work that must be done to build communities that are free from fear, whether that’s in Walthamstow or Tottenham, Erdington or Toxteth.
I know the willingness to do that is there, because colleges, their staff and students alike, have the same vested interest in building a safer and more civilised society as the rest of the community.
Safer Colleges is an important step towards achieving that and I thank you all once again for your part in turning it into a reality.
