Did Thatcher Have It Right All Along?

How We’ve Changed from Offender Punishment to Offender Rehabilitation — and It’s Not Working

Remember the good old days when Margaret Thatcher was the ultimate “tough on crime” poster child?
Longer prison sentences, strict punishments, and a very clear message: “Break the law, pay up.” No sugarcoating. No second chances. Just justice — or so we thought.

Fast forward a few decades, and the system did a 180-degree spin.
Now it’s all about rehabilitation. Suspended sentences, rehab days, community orders. The justice system decided to swap the hammer for a “let’s help you fix your life” toolkit.

Sounds like a fairy tale ending, right?
Except it’s more like a fairy tale with a broken wand.

So, what happened?

We went from “lock ’em up” to “let’s give ’em a chance” without really figuring out how to make the “chance” count.
The idea of rehabilitation is lovely in theory. Who wouldn’t want to help someone get back on their feet? But in practice?
It’s often a slapdash half-day session and a leaflet that says “Good luck, we believe in you.”
(Seriously, if a mild alcoholic could be cured in a day, we’d all be at AA by now, right?)

Thatcher’s “Tough on Crime” Era: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

  • Good: She was clear and direct about consequences. Crime wasn’t free. That clarity meant some offenders thought twice.

  • Bad: The system became punitive and inflexible, often ignoring the root causes of crime — like addiction, trauma, or mental health.

  • Ugly: Overcrowded prisons, high reoffending rates, and communities left without support.

Today’s “Rehab Revolution” — With a Catch

Rehabilitation sounds amazing — except it often comes with a “best intentions” label that doesn’t match reality.
Suspended sentences replaced prison time for many. And rehab programs became more like checkboxes than life-changing support.
You get a few “rehab days,” maybe some counselling — but often without the time, resources, or follow-up to make a real difference.

Enter Robert Jenrick MP — The Modern Conservative Saying: “Hold On, Wait a Minute”

Fast forward to today, and some voices from the Conservative party — like Robert Jenrick MP — are pushing back.
He’s saying what many quietly think:
“Maybe we’ve been too soft.”
Jenrick argues for a return to tougher punishments combined with effective rehabilitation — a balanced approach that holds offenders accountable but doesn’t just toss them into the system without support.

He’s onto something. Because justice isn’t about swinging from one extreme to the other; it’s about finding that sweet spot.

What Did We Miss?

We swung the pendulum, but we forgot that neither punishment alone nor rehabilitation alone solves the problem.
The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle: accountability with support.
A system that says:

  • “You’re responsible for your actions.”

  • “Here’s help to change.”

  • “And here’s the community we’re protecting, too.”

Why Does This Matter?

Because every time we get this wrong:

  • Victims feel forgotten.

  • Offenders don’t get the tools to change.

  • Communities suffer the consequences.

  • And the cycle just keeps going.

The Takeaway

Thatcher’s era wasn’t perfect, but maybe she had a point about the need for consequences.
Today’s system tries to be kinder but often ends up being weaker — and that’s dangerous.
If we want justice that works, we need to blend fair punishment with real, well-funded rehabilitation — not token “rehab days” or endless suspended sentences.

Because, honestly, our communities — and our children — deserve better than fairy tales with broken wands.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Unlearning the Lies: The Dangerous Habit of Victim Blaming

"Why didn’t she leave?" It’s a question that sits on the tip of the tongue like concern but make no mistake — it’s an accusation dressed in curiosity. It’s the starting point of an all-too-familiar interrogation that turns a survivor into a suspect in their own trauma. Victim blaming isn’t just a toxic cultural reflex — it’s a systemic rot embedded in our institutions, courtrooms, and conversations. And its long past time we unlearned the lies we’ve been fed about what it means to survive abuse. The Cost of Blame In the UK, 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime (Office for National Statistics, 2023). Every year, over 2.4 million adults are subjected to it — yet only a fraction will report it. Why? Because the minute they do, the spotlight shifts from the perpetrator to their own perceived failings. It’s not an abstract fear. The 2021 report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary concluded that victims of domestic abuse often ...
Read more

The Friendships That Don’t Survive Abuse: Why Speaking Out Changes Everything

Some friendships don’t end with a dramatic fallout. Some just wither into silence the moment you tell the truth. When I spoke out about the abuse I endured, I braced myself for many things—the scrutiny, the doubt, the emotional exhaustion. But what I wasn’t prepared for was the quiet betrayal of people I once called friends. The colleagues who stopped making eye contact. The friends who suddenly got “too busy.” The ones who thought staying neutral was a virtue. The truth is, speaking out doesn’t just reveal the abuser. It reveals everyone else too. When Silence Speaks Louder Than Words The first thing you notice isn’t a confrontation. It’s the silence. The unread messages. The sudden distance. It’s not that they don’t believe you. It’s that believing you would make their world too uncomfortable. When you expose abuse, you’re not just challenging one person. You’re challenging a system. A status quo. And for many, that’s too heavy a truth to carry. It’s easier to step back, look away, a...
Read more