It’s Time For Tough Action On Britain’s Knife Crisis Before More Families Have To Suffer
The Tories promised then failed to deliver, and still not enough is being done to curb the scourge of knives on our streets, which claimed 233 lives in the 12 months to March this year
No teenager should feel the need to carry a knife to protect themselvesThe parents in Zoe Cooke’s WhatsApp support group know exactly what the families of the three little girls stabbed to death in Southport are going through.
The group is exclusively for those grieving for children killed by bladed weapons. Zoe and other members say not enough is being done to curb the scourge of knives on our streets, which claimed 233 lives in the 12 months to March this year. They are right. Britain’s strict gun control laws have largely spared us from the shooting horrors seen in the US.
But there is no room for complacency while so many youngsters carry knives and too many die as a consequence. No teenager should feel the need to carry a knife to protect themselves. More needs to be done to stop them being groomed by gangs. And they must be stopped from disappearing into a dangerous online world where lethal weaponry is as easy to come by as a kitchen knife.
The Tories promised 16 times in the past decade to crack down on knife crime – but it rose by 80% while neighbourhood police numbers fell by 10,000.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has pledged to change that by faster and tougher sentences. Every young person convicted of knife crime will be referred to a Youth Offending Team to stop them doing it again. And tech bosses who allow easy access to weapons online will face prosecution. We welcome these proposals but they need to be enacted swiftly.
The time for action, Ms Cooper, is now.
Hunger shame No child should have to go hungry. But without free school meals during the six-week summer holiday, that is the reality for too many families battered by high living costs.
Charity Bread and Butter has come to the rescue by making healthy surplus food available at low cost to children who need it.
Supermarket giant Morrisons is already on board and we urge other big and small retailers to get involved.
After the rioting that tore communities apart, this is the kind of initiative which binds people together.
The Government should also get behind it by making it mandatory for manufacturers and suppliers to earmark for redistribution any food which would otherwise go to waste.
So that no child has to rely on bread and butter but gets a balanced diet including fresh fruit and veg and some extra goodies, too.
Lags’ crusade Former Time Team presenter Phil Harding is overseeing an archaeological scheme to rehabilitate prisoners by training them to dig for buried treasure, like Indiana Jones.
Which makes a wholesome change from busting into bank vaults to find it.
