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Latest News
Cameron: ’Public must act to stop gangs’
by David Byers, Times Online London
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August 24, 2007 Members of the public must stop "sitting back" and waiting for the Government to halt the rise of gangs and start taking responsibility for the problem themselves, David Cameron has said. The Conservative leader used a speech today to claim that society should take a chunk of the responsibility for the social breakdown in some communities.
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Bad parenting, poor discipline in schools and the glorification of violence by the music, film and computer industries were responsible for part of the problem, Mr Cameron told a military audience in Oxfordshire.
The Tory leader used his speech to pay tribute to the "powerful and moving" statements by the parents of Rhys Jones, 11, who was shot dead in Liverpool on Wednesday night.
Calling for a recognition that individuals had to play their part in playing a better society, he said: "Today I say that we should ask not just what we expect from our Government in response to these dreadful crimes - but what do we expect from ourselves and from society?
He added: "To me this is what social responsibility is all about. Not just sitting back and saying that the Government must act, but all of us saying: this is my country, my society, my responsibility - and I must play my part.
"It means parents taking responsibility for bringing up children properly. It means schools playing their part in instilling discipline and good values.
"It means retailers stopping the sale of alcohol to young teenagers. It means music companies, media companies, games manufacturers, not just thinking ’what is my social responsibility as a company in terms of the projects I support and the charities I back, good and important as they are’, but asking: ’what is the effect of the music I produce, the games I market and the programmes I broadcast?"’
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