34
Interview
PowerList 2008
THE BATTLE
OF HASTInGS
KPMG’S Lord Hastings believes a return to the
fundamental values of society is the way to curb
youth crime. Michael Eboda listens to his argument
H
e’s the Global Head of Citizenship and Diversity for KPMG, motivated by how we’re loved. Every one of us knows what it means
a job he combines with being a crossbench peer, so the as- when we matter to somebody else and that somebody else takes
sumption that a conversation with Lord Hastings of time to phone us, email us, write to us or pursue us in some way.
Scarisbrick, would be dominated by issues of big business and poli- ‘I think we have an unbelievably painful crisis of fractured
tics seemed a reasonable one to make. families. Children have been brought in to family arrangements
It was somewhat a surprise, then, when we ended up spending where the nature of love between parents and children has long
a large amount of the time allocated for the interview talking about gone. And what all the psychological analysis says is that if children
youth crime: its causes and what must be done to put an end to the don’t have a place of intimate appreciation and affection – which
epidemic of violence that is plaguing the lives of our young people. should be in the family – they will find it in the gang and the group
We met on a beautiful summer’s day on the terrace of the House and when the gang and the group consists of boys for whom pain is
of Lords, overlooking the Thames, and began by touching upon the primary experience of their everyday life – they’re let down, not
Lord Hastings’ role at KPMG. His focus, he says in his easygoing, been loved, not been treasured – then, of course, resentment is built
articulate, manner, is on ensuring that the set of values the firm into that network of relationships and violence becomes a tidy way
has committed to regarding communities and its respect for the of expressing that anger, because at the heart of not feeling loved is
individual, always contribute to the firm’s thinking. It becomes clear feeling rejected. When somebody is rejected, they are angry; with
later on that values are something Michael Hastings takes very that anger comes aggression; with aggression comes violence and
seriously indeed – a recurring theme in much of what he talks about. when a knife or gun is available it will be used.’
For example, he says one of the benefits of being a life peer, He says the solution, particularly to the third cause, is going to be
which he has been since 2005, is about values: in particular, how neither easy, nor straightforward.
members of the upper house are able to disregard the temptation ‘We have to look at these three factors together. We can do
to back vote-chasing, headline-grabbing, quick fixes that seem to structural things about drugs and about schools and jobs, but it’s
be the meat and veg of their legislative cousins in the lower house. not easy to do structural things about relationships.
‘When you are an elected member of the House of Commons you are ‘That becomes part of the imperative of creating a new social
thinking on a four-year cycle; if you are an unelected member of the culture, and what you can’t do with that is simply spend government
House of Lords you could be here for 40 years,’ he explains. ‘That money. We’ve had a welfare framework for a generation; we have a
changes your perspective.’ network of social welfare provision in the UK, but it has not plugged
The conversation segued into the discussion about youth crime, the hole. This is about a different social contract.’
for which all kinds of short-term, often quite useless, ideas have So, what to do?
been put forward as solutions by the country’s politicians. ‘Some of it comes back to the values that the nation needs to
Until the day before we met in late June, Lord Hastings had been have and communities need to have. Some of those values will come
the Chair of the charity Crime Concern, which he was involved with from distinctive faith positions: Christian, Muslim, Sikh, Jewish,
for some 21 years. He realises that the true answers will be long-term Hindu, Buddhist. What those values are about is determining in
and that gimmicks won’t work. advance what matters most. Therefore, when the choice is available
‘The truth is, there’s never one cause and there’s not a single to parents, where do we put the investment?
answer [to the spate of stabbings sweeping the country], but I think ‘We can buy our way into a child’s affection, but actually it
there’s possibly three that we need to focus hard on. returns nothing. Time is the most important gift that you can ever
‘One of the three is that, if a young man or woman gets entrapped give a child. Time to smile, time to discuss, time to sit and hold, to
by drugs, it is pretty certain that they are going to find themselves be affectionate. You can give them lots of stuff, but that doesn’t build
up against the law, engaged in acts of criminality. Carrying a gun or a up the emotional heart at the centre of what a person needs. And if
knife, if you’re dealing with drugs or using drugs, is almost inevitable. children are not secure from their home environment upwards then
‘Secondly, I think it’s a fair truism to say that a young man or they become aggressive about their insecurity.
woman who feels educationally confident – is reading well by ‘So we need a return to two fundamentals. Firstly, a return to
the time they are 10 or 11, has parents who have a vision of their values that work in our society; and secondly, a commitment to
prospects, and a sense that work is an essential part of life – is not relationships that hold society together.’
going to be inclined to join in with a culture that says there’s nothing A few weeks after the interview, the government wheeled
other to do than set out together on a route of negativity. out their ‘knife czar’, whose solution to youth crime was to call
‘But the third one, and this is the most painful, difficult and for national service to be reintroduced. It struck me that I’d just
intractable of all and it’s the most basic one: every one of us is most interviewed a far more suitable man for the job.
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