London rioters need "tough love": Cameron - Zee News

London: UK Prime Minister David Cameron has said that those involved in the recent riots here and other English cities need "tough love" as he vowed to deal with the country's 120,000 problem families.

The UK must "do better at bringing up our children" and insisted that "much more systematic" intervention in the 120,000 most troubled families was key, Cameron said.

"There's lots of contact with these families, but no- one's actually working on the family, to get into that family and work out what's actually wrong and put it right," he told the BBC.

Cameron said he would turn around the lives of 120,000 problem families by 2015.

He reiterated his belief that the riots that erupted in several English cities last month were criminality rather than any form of protest.

"Tragically, we also saw people who were just drawn into it, who passed the broken shop window and popped in and nicked a telly," he said.

During the August 6-9 riots, shops were looted, buildings burned and five people died.

"That is a sign of moral collapse, of failing to recognise the difference between right and wrong."

Cameron said "tough love" - and indeed "both elements of it" - were crucial to dealing with rioters.

"For some of the children who've ended up in this terrible situation there was probably a failure in their background, in their families," he said.

"There probably was a shortage of not just respect and boundaries but also love. But you do need, when they cross the line and break the law, to be very tough.

"So to me tough love sums it up, that's what we need," he said.

The Prime Minister said the money to do that would be found, despite spending cuts, and that it would "save the country a fortune" in the long term.

"I think it's an opportunity, we have to use try and use this an opportunity, to do things to strengthen our society, which along with rebuilding a strong economy is going to be this government's priority."

"I think we all need to have a wake-up moment in terms of exercising our responsibilities," he said.

According to the official figures, 1,566 people have now appeared before courts and charged with involvement in the disturbances. About a fifth were youths, aged 10 to 17, and 91 per cent were male, the Ministry of Justice said.

PTI