That statement by British Labour Party leader Tony Blair will come as a shock to those of Bermuda's politicians who disrupt Bermuda's efforts at law and order and to those who wear an absence of family values as a badge of honour.

"If there is one thing above all that our people cry out for us to do, it is to deal with crime and reintroduce security to our lives.

"To be tough on crime is to assure greater protection to the decent law-abiding majority. To be tough on the causes of crime is to be alert to dangers that link social factors to crime.

"I had in mind the families up and down the country whose lives are made hell be teenage tearaways, vandals, drug dealers, muggers, graffiti artists and the culture of despair that has been spawned by the breakdown in the decent values on which Britain was built.'' Mr. Tony Blair, leader of the British Labour Party, was speaking at the Commonwealth Press Union conference in South Africa. He was talking about Britain but he might well have been describing today's Bermuda.

"Families have a right to live in secure communities that are orderly and safe for their children to live, learn and play in. But parents have a responsibility to know where their children are and what they are doing. I can see no reason at all for young children to be out on their own late at night, and I can see many reasons why they shouldn't be - not least their own safety.

We are examining measures to tackle this. Some have called it curfew. I call it child protection.'' Bermuda's Labour Party leaders disrupt attempts to ensure that we live in a safe and secure community.

In Bermuda we have often blamed the ills of society on the need for both parents to work and on the growing numbers of single parent households. We have tended to excuse the young people by blaming the parents and we have excused the parents by blaming society.

Tony Blair says: "I know as well as anyone how hard it can be for working people to find the time to be with their children. But that effort must be made. I know too that the vast majority of parents, two parent and single parent families alike, make the effort, often in difficult circumstances. And surely there can be no disputing that the break up of family and community bonds is directly linked to the breakdown in law and order. Sould anyone be in any doubt about that, you need only visit a juvenile court.

"In a society in which opportunity is extended we have greater security, our streets are safer, our young people more motivated, our ambitions better fulfilled.

"....we must offer opportunity, the chance to break out of the cycle of low ambition and despair. Without opportunity, without a stake in society, we will never create the sense of citizenship we need.''