Oliver Letwin: We must not auction off our liberties

From a speech by the Shadow Home Secretary at the Centre for Policy Studies in London

This is a government that doesn't understand why its policies don't work. If crime is uncontrollable, they say, it's because Whitehall doesn't have enough control. So they chip away at the checks on executive power. Trial by jury, double jeopardy, the independence of the police. All of these are under threat.

It is time to make a stand at the doors of the defenceless. That is what the next Conservative government will do. Of course, it won't be me on the beat. Which is why I won't be taking power for myself, but giving power to those who hold the line – the police, teachers, parents and neighbours. It is through them that we will first contain the attack on civilisation and then rebuild what has been destroyed.

This is no time to auction off our liberties. In a bidding war of empty gestures, the extremist will always outbid the democrat, with five such bids already accepted in towns across the North. In Oldham, Burnley and Halifax the alienation of the electorate is unprecedented. This is not about asylum-seekers. It is about people who have every reason to be afraid, and no reason to trust the authorities on anything they say. And the BNP are ready, willing and able to exploit the situation.

The fascists don't have to take over to do terrible damage. If they did only half as well as the National Front in France, it would poison our politics for decades. It doesn't need to be this way. While we can look abroad and at home to see what can go wrong, we are able also to see what could go right. From drug prevention in Sweden to neighbourhood policing in America to grassroots action in our own country, the solutions are within our grasp.