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Hello, I'm Sean Curran, and this is yesterday in Parliament from BBC Radio 4.

Plans to crack down on crime and anti-social behaviour cleared their first big parliamentary hurdle on Monday the 10th of March.

The Home Secretary ofette Cooper said the proposed new law would make

people in England and Wales safer, but the Conservatives accused her of copying and pasting

their plans. It's been more than 30 years since Tony Blair first promised to be tough on crime

and tough on the causes of crime. Now Labour is dusting off the phrase as it

introduces a new crime and policing bill, a sweeping piece of legislation with more than

300 pages and 137 clauses. Opening the first Commons debate on the plans, the Home Secretary

pointed to proposals announced last

month, giving the police in England and Wales new powers to tackle the theft of mobile phones.

All of us will know constituents, friends or family who've had their phone stolen and then

they can track it maybe through find my iPhone or through other similar services, yet when they tell the

police where their phone is, nothing is done. So we'll give the police new powers, where they have

electronic evidence from tracking technology on the location of stolen goods, to be able to

enter and search premises without waiting for warrants to be put in place. And Yvette Cooper told MPs she planned to scrap the rule, which deemed shoplifting of

goods worth less than £200 to be low-value thefts.

She said it had become a shoplifter's charter.

But that kind of crime spreads, creates a sense of lawlessness and huge anger and frustration among

the law-abiding majority who see criminals getting away with it and respect for the law

hollowed out. She said safety from harm was a fundamental right. Under this government, safer

streets is a mission for us all to draw our communities together, put police

...