LET no-one be under any illusions, the starting gun for the next General Election has been fired. And in the battle for the hearts and minds of the electorate, I can see law and order playing as crucial a role as any other factor.

Of course, traditionally it is the economy which is the decisive issue. It's natural to vote for the party you feel will improve your standard of living. But with the economic policies of Labour and the Conservatives so similar, it may be all-round quality of life that comes to the forefront of people's minds.

After all, what's the point of having cash in your pocket if you're afraid to walk down the street to spend it? DVDs and plasma screen tellys are all well and good, but you buy them for your home - not a burglar's.

So the main parties have already begun a game of law and order brinkmanship: who can come up with the most radical, hard-hitting policy. And I have to say I have been impressed with what I have heard.

Michael Howard has targeted the creeping scourge of political correctness which, if allowed to continue unchecked, will neuter public services, including the police.

Of course, when people are subjected to stop searches in the street they are entitled to a record of what has happened. But Michael Howard is absolutely right in saying the paperwork following each of these searches should not take up seven minutes of an officer's time.

Meanwhile, Home Office Minister Hazel Blears suggests the nation's crime reduction strategy should target the children of prisoners - two thirds of whom will themselves end up as criminals.

Mrs Blears is right and before the candyfloss brigade start spouting about how this is discriminatory, they should consider what is best for the child concerned. Because I suspect Mrs Blears will probably find the move has the support of many criminals.

When offenders reach their mid-twenties they often decide they want to get off the path of crime. There are several factors for this. Some start listening to their conscience, others get worn down by the constant attention of the police and simply decide it's easier to make an honest living.

And many get married and have kids, and realise this doesn't mix with spells in jail.

Many criminals who I locked up as teenagers spoke to me in later life about how they were desperate to persuade their children not to follow in their criminal footsteps. Some even invited me to speak to their kids.

I would extend Mrs Blears' scheme to education because there are schools which produce far more offenders than others - usually due to geographical reasons. Targeting resources in this way is far more effective than spreading them evenly and thinly. It's not a case of branding individual schools and their pupils, but a common sense way of identifying a problem and dealing with it.

It costs £30,000 a year to keep a prisoner in jail and that's without the cost of catching him in the first place, repairing any damage he may have wrought and, most important of all, the human cost suffered by the victim.

Targeting children as either individuals or in school to prevent them stepping onto the crime ladder is a sound investment for their future and that of the nation.

Published: 20/08/2004