Making work pay and properly tackling crime are the only way to save us from a nation of Middlesbroughs

IF Broken Britain needs a capital, nowhere fits the bill better than Middlesbrough. The Teesside town has had the highest crime rate in England for some time, yet still the crime wave of the past week has come as a shock. A gathering in memory of A66 crash victim Jakub Matusiak in Middlesbrough this week Credit: NNP Middlesbrough was once ‘Ironopolis’, one of the biggest producers of pig iron in the world, as well as a centre of shipbuilding Credit: Alamy Since a car travelling the wrong way down the A66 dual carriageway crashed into a police car early last Saturday morning, killing five youths and two police officers, the town has descended into what many suspect to be an orgy of gang-related violence. A seven-year-old girl and her aunt were killed in an arson attack on their home, a couple of houses were rammed by cars and a man was stabbed in his own home. Sign up for The Sun newsletter Thank you! But it is not just the acts of violence themselves that have been so remarkable, as the lawless vigils held by families and friends of the youths who died last weekend. On Thursday night, five — presumably stolen — cars were set alight in an act of memorial for one of those killed. READ MORE FROM ROSS CLARK Four of the five who died in the vehicle that crashed into the police car on the A66 had 37 convictions between them — in spite of the eldest being just 23 and a couple being only 17 Credit: PA On Thursday night, five — presumably stolen — cars were set alight in an act of memorial for one of those killed in the A66 horror crash Credit: Unknown Criminality is being brazenly celebrated in a way not seen in Britain since the funerals of the Kray twins three decades ago. Middlesbrough is becoming like Belfast in the 1970s, albeit without the religion and sectarian divides. It is descending into a dystopian hellhole straight out of TV show Line Of Duty, where gangs acting according to criminal codes of behaviour are overwhelming the official forces of law and order. The local police force has had to be reinforced with officers from outside the town in an attempt to regain order. Most read in The Sun Andy Burnham has vowed to revive the North – but maybe he should start in crime-hit Middlesbrough rather than plush Manchester Credit: Getty Middlesbrough has descended into what many suspect to be an orgy of gang-related violence since the A66 crash Credit: PA None of this is to say, of course, that the vast majority of residents of Middlesbrough are not decent, neighbourly people who just want to get on with their lives. But the events of the past week have shown how easy it is for a malign minority to usurp control of a town. The veneer of civilised values that normally hides the less savoury elements of society has never seemed so thin. It is so sad to see this happening to a town that once brimmed with pride. The Quaker industrialists who founded the place would have been appalled. Middlesbrough was once “Ironopolis”, one of the biggest producers of pig iron in the world, as well as a centre of shipbuilding. A seven-year-old girl and her aunt were killed in an arson attack on their home Credit: PA A tribute to one of the youths who died in the crash that also killed two police officers Its shipyards turned out trawlers by the dozen, as well as many of the warships that helped keep the transatlantic food convoys moving during the Second World War. They also built the first container ships in the 1960s, before closing in the 1980s. It is not hard to see the underlying cause of problems in Middlesbrough and elsewhere. Figures released this week by the Office for National Statistics show that 981,000 under-25s in the UK — one in eight of the total — were “NEETs”, which means they were “not in employment, education or training”. That is shocking enough in itself, yet doesn’t do justice to the full scale of worklessness in former industrial towns like Middlesbrough. Since heavy industry went into decline in the 1980s we have had a couple of generations grow up in some families without ever knowing paid employment. If you are aspirational and growing up on a sink estate the obvious opportunities to “better” yourself may well seem to lie in the world of crime. If we are to avoid more Middlesboroughs, it is absolutely vital that the Government reforms the welfare system so that work pays, and that living a life of idleness on benefits no longer becomes an option. School and college leavers need to be incentivised to search for work, and rewarded when they find it. If they do not get their careers off to a good start it may rapidly become too late to save them from being sucked into a life of crime. On the other side of the equation, it needs to be made absolutely clear to people that crime will not pay. It is sickening to think four of the five who died in the vehicle that crashed into the police car had 37 convictions between them — in spite of the eldest being just 23 and a couple being only 17. Their crimes included drugs offences, theft, stealing vehicles and assaulting a police officer. The police and criminal justice system were doing their job in bringing prosecutions against these thugs, yet they were still free to roam the streets. We could do with a policy of “three strikes and you’re out”, which brought order to US cities in the 1990s, where a third conviction — even for a relatively minor offence — takes you off the streets for a very long time. Andy Burnham has staked his reputation on reviving the industrial North, and bringing “growth to every postcode”. Middlesbrough, rather than plush Manchester, should be where he starts. But he will have to do better than Home Office minister Anna Turley, who last week said she had laid flowers “to pay my respects” to the youths who died. Their deaths might be a tragedy for their families, but no, they do not deserve our respect. They were thugs who have helped to reduce a once-proud industrial town to a nightmare of criminality. Removing such people from the streets is going to have to be a large part of winning Middlesbrough back for the decent and law-abiding majority. 2 comments2