I think it's fair to set limits, so that people cannot receive more than the equivalent of the national average wage while living on benefits.

I think it's fair to set limits on housing benefit, so that people on welfare do not end up able to live in better areas than those doing the right thing by finding work.

The state has no right to cast people aside because they are sick or disabled.

We must give individuals the opportunity to show what they are capable of.

The root causes of the gang culture lie right across the policy spectrum - but they can all be found in the same areas geographically: worklessness; family breakdown; educational failure and addiction.

Whether it is kids carrying knives because they are in gangs or kids carrying knives because they are afraid of gangs, it is the gang culture that underpins the problem.

The truth is that those who join gangs - more often than not they are young men in their later teens - often do come from the most difficult family backgrounds, from an environment where they feel neglected and unwanted. Gang membership can bring a perverse sense of belonging which they may not have ever got at home.

The vast majority of young people in Britain are law-abiding citizens making important contributions to their communities.

I have met virtually no one in the policing and security world who thinks ID cards are an essential part of what they need to do in the future.

Introducing ID cards isn't a matter of great national security importance.

People are innocent until they are proven guilty, and we will make sure that stays the case.

I think that far too often we let those who commit crimes in our society off far too lightly.

No one would normally accuse me of being soft on crime.

Few escape our most deprived estates. Few young people with potential escape difficult upbringings. Fewer cross the social divides.

Britain is a country of glass ceilings.

On our toughest estates, generations pass with the same experience of worklessness and educational failure.

Social immobility is driven by family background, instability in childhood and often by parents who don't know how to give children the right start in life.

Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Leeds have successful financial services sectors. There are good universities there which provide great opportunities for local technological innovation. And there are strong multinational and family businesses.

We have to take real steps to break down the culture of benefit dependency and failure which blights too many urban areas.

A short distance away from thriving city centres in virtually all of our cities, you will find areas of endemic worklessness, alienation, crime and antisocial behaviour.

The problems of gang crime you find in some parts of the north are little different to the problems you find on the streets of south London.

The gang culture - tragically - has for some young people become the only source of stability in their lives.

Generational disinterest in education means that too many young children lack the push from their parents in early years which can make the difference between success and failure in schools.

Family breakdown is blighting the lives of far too many children.