Blair seeks to shift focus from sentencing debate

Blair seeks to shift focus from sentencing debate

Tabloid newspapers have been battering the government with accusations that many judges are letting dangerous criminals go free too soon and are not concerned enough with victims' needs.

Blair planned to say in a speech in the western English city of Bristol that Britons must have a serious, in-depth debate on how to balance defendants' rights with the need to fight crime. The system, he argues, must be "rebalanced" to give more weight to the rights of crime victims and more power to law enforcement, the AP reports.

It was to be the first in a series of speeches on domestic policy that Blair's office says he plans to deliver in the coming months.