I went to the Urgent Question on knife crime on Monday. MPs all round the Commons are concerned at the escalation in these crimes of violence in various communities in the UK and keen to see more done to reduce and control it. I asked the Home Secretary what action he is taking to spread best practice from those towns and cities that are making progress with prevention to those with the worst problems, and what can be done to ensure extra money and personnel going into policing and responding are being targeted in the right way to tackle this trouble.
During the exchanges there was a general feeling that the Glasgow approach has had some success. Some favour wider use of stop and search powers to remove knives from young people, including random searches without grounds for suspicion. Some think more police in general is what is needed, whilst the Prime Minister has suggested that there is no correlation between police numbers and knife crime.
Clearly having an active police presence in areas of our towns prone to knife crime attacks at times of the day and night when they are most likely must be an important part of the response. We also need to see that this is not a problem which the police on their own can solve. All the young teenagers caught up in this violence have parents or guardians , teachers, adult wider family members, youth and sports club organisers and others who know them and take an interest in them. Any one of these adults could say or do the right thing to reduce the chances of that young person carrying a knife or being drawn into gangland activity.
Some young people are drawn into gangs out of a sense of adventure. Some are groomed by older gang members. Some end up in a gang out of fear. Whilst young people do not want to be subject to home detention, adults in the family do need to take an interest in how much time their children spend out on the streets and what risks that might bring to them. Young people that have been looked after by the authorities or are the products of a broken home are particularly vulnerable to gang grooming according to the Children’s Commissioner. The gang culture can lead to drugs and other criminal activity. Once lines have been crossed the young person can be forced into continuing with a way of life they would not have chosen had they known how it ended, of if they had enough support at the beginning to say No.
March 6, 2019
The other thing that needs looking at is the quality of the senior police leadership.
We have now had years of accelerated promotion schemes, and politically correct choices in promotion decisions, with more weight being given to diversity training and driving spreadsheets than actual real front line hands on policing.
There is a core of decent hard working clever cops that dont even bother go for senior promotion, so tainted is the quality of people at those ranks they see before them.
So a radical rethink on who we are promoting to the senior ranks is needed, because being the best spreadsheet jockey and PR master does not produce the best results on the ground.
Got to be said the crimebodge youtube channel, although clearly a bit over the top, does expose how crap a lot of our front line policing is. We really need to ramp up the quality of policing out there, and so hard realistic reviews of such youtube channels could help the police learn a lot if they bothered.
March 6, 2019
One big problem we have is that youngsters are not valued by society.
Much of the problem is that nowadays we exclude youngsters from work.
Years ago a young person could work part-time in a factory or building site. Not any more. Even retailers restrict the employment of youngsters.
Earning your own money means you are valued and you are using your energy constructively.
Instead of treating youngsters like a problem, they should be seen as a valuable resource. I think I’ll scream when the next politician asks for more youth clubs when the answer is far more obvious and constructive.
March 6, 2019
Indeed let them leave school at 16 even 15 and make them get a job and learn how to work. .
March 6, 2019
We read criticism that the awful PM has made another fatal concession by making draft treaty on defence, security and intelligence with the EU. Giving away everything for nothing in return other than being excluded from Galileo where a UK is the brains behind its leading technology!
March 6, 2019
Following unpresidnted violence at football matches years ago everyone was searched or randomly searched,without evidence or intelligence they had a knife, entering football grounds and it stopped knife crime inside grounds. Same for festivals, blanket searching.
The proposed law changes are a PR exercise to show the govt is doing something and will not change anything. There is sufficient law about carrying knifes and offensive weapons and have been for years. PACE in 1986 changed reasonable suspicion, wher search s could be carried out etc. Stop and search introduced by May was the key factor to prevent police using the power. Totally tin ear again today in parliament. She is a bonehead who will not listen or accept responsibility for her failings. You would have thought she would learnt from her experience at the last election, but no.
March 6, 2019
She is absolutely appalling, wrong on almost everything! Not quite as bad as Corbyn is about the only positive thing one can say about her and her side kick tax to death Hammond. A dire Home Secretary and an appalling sell out PM.
March 6, 2019
Yes,Hope, the D Express article puts it starkly:
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1096444/Brexit-news-update-Theresa-May-deal-national-security-European-Union-UK
Brexit SHOCK: Theresa May has offered EU the ‘crown jewels’ of national security
FORMER Ministry of Defence advisor Professor Gwythian Prins warned Theresa May’s Government has made a “fatal concession” to the EU offering the Brussels bloc the “crown jewels” of the UK national security……..Speaking to TalkRADIO, Professor Prins claimed Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement was accompanied by a deal with the EU over the future security and defence relationship with the Brussels bloc that gave away the UK’s intelligence provided by the Five Eyes Alliance.
Doesn’t surprise me one bit. How much of the WA have MPs really read? I think those supporting it really have no idea what is contained in it.
March 6, 2019
You make some interesting points. Some of which I can agree with, others not. But what you do not provide is solutions or valid reasons to back up what you say.
Maybe if government had not introduced the Minimum Wage business might be able to employ more young people ? Or maybe if government stopped MASS IMMIGRATION of low wage people coming into the UK there would be more jobs ?
March 6, 2019
Can the govt introduce a guaranteed minimum profit for small business to ensure they can keep up with the additional costs of Auto Enrollment, Min Wage, Business Rates and MTD?
March 6, 2019
and a rule about minimum work would also be nice.
Very difficult for small businesses to get rid of slackers under the current legislation. Hence the move towards zero hour contracts.
March 7, 2019
Hammond complains about low productivity yet the government are the main cause of it. This with their very high and complex taxes, endless red tape, expensive green crap energy, restrictive planning, daft employment laws and endless interference.
March 6, 2019
An excellent point. In the absence of being able to work legally, young folk look for other ways to make money, which could lead anywhere. I can imagine being in that bracket had I not been able to help on the milk float or deliver papers at 13. It should be part of growing up. not outlawed. No doubt another EU law we have to change, once May is out of the picture with her crazy ideas.
March 6, 2019
Breakdown in traditional family life often means a father is absent during a child’s upbringing. A good father helps keep a child from going off the rails. In society, moral relativism has gradually replaced the teaching of right and wrong.
There is less fear of discovery and conviction than there used to be. There is less fear of sentencing, which is too light anyway. In 1960, 18 year old Francis Forsyth from Hounslow was hanged for a mugging where a gang kicked a man to death. Not long after, one of his pals was hanged for murder during a bank robbery. Nowadays, in this country, they would get off with a light sentence.
Political correctness hampers tackling crime. Instead, we have a growing race relations industry and ‘race hustler’ MPs who seek to build a career on ‘victimhood’ like their American equivalent Al Sharpton. The criminality of particular ethnic groups is not up for discussion. When it is mentioned it is dismissed as being a result of poverty. As with grooming gangs, the authorities would prefer to sweep it under the carpet.
March 6, 2019
Well said, Kenneth. It used to be accepted that a young person at 14 was old enough to go and do a stint in a supermarket (or whatever) for a few hours to earn their own pocket money. Then, if at college later, to get a summer holiday job (the sort of thing that we are importing labour to do now).
Until young people learn the value of earning their own money and paying their own way, then they won’t become responsible adults. It won’t save them all, but maybe a few would get the benefit.
March 6, 2019
I agree Kenneth, the earning money element is important, I worked on market stalls, childminding, then in a shop, cleaning etc from a very young age because my parents didn’t have spare cash to give me. I also agree about the youth clubs – especially in London and other cities there are so many activities available compared to rural living, Mayor Khan should tell us what youth facilities are nearby the scenes of every knife crime, publicise them all.
March 6, 2019
I agree.
I think the solution will involve spending more on youth clubs and youth councillors so troubled youths don’t get involved in gangs in the first place.
I think this is one of the cases where cuts in spending will end up costing the taxpayer more, as well as inflicting heartbreak on families. While I appreciate cuts are necessary, I think cutting youth services was probably in retrospect a mistake.
March 6, 2019
Using May’s defunct liberal left logic of causal crime to police numbers. Therefore she needs to explain to us why is she protected at all no one has tried to hurt or kill her? The same for Royal weddings, VIP visits. About 400 police officers providing firearm cover every day for royals on politicians. Including their private lives and private events.
May should be called out on her defunct logic to explain why she has round the clock police protection every day, same for Cameron, Brown, Blaire and Major. It is only a perception that police protection is required not based on crime figures nor intelligence.
March 7, 2019
Indeed even 999 call go unanswered and are often not properly responded to. They have totally given up on most crime in my experience.
March 6, 2019
The pressures to join gangs is far too strong. Joining youth clubs is at best only partially effective.
What we are talking about here are feral individuals that have no respect for anyone else, not their right to life, nor their property. They fear nothing because there are no consequences. They are beyond redemption. They are dangerous and must not be allowed to remain at liberty.
If we truly intend to break the cycle, then it must be done in the confines of a secure institution.
I see today MPs laughing in the Commons chamber, completely oblivious of the seriousness of the nation’s predicament. At the time of writing, someone else has been murdered in East London.
Aren’t our politicians wonderful!
March 6, 2019
You’re right, Tad. There’s a lack of self respect as well as no respect for others, combined with a great sense of entitlement.
There used to be consequences for bad behaviour – sanctions and punishment. Now our society is so soft that these individuals have no fear of any sort of meaningful reprisal, no matter how vile their actions.
People call for ‘national service’ but even that wouldn’t carry the threat of punishment for non-compliance – so how could discipline be maintained? Things seem to have gone too far unless, as you say, we introduce what used to be called ‘borstal’ with appropriate and significant punishment, in defiance of do-gooders and bleeding hearts.
We must get back to the idea of retribution and deterrence.
March 7, 2019
Feral individuals who are beyond redemption? At seventeen?
Bit hardline surely?
Putting people in a school for crime is not generally an ideal solution (albeit often a necessary one). While I accept the need for prison, I think people are often unwilling to accept there are consequences to locking up naïve young people with hardened criminals.
March 7, 2019
Perhaps these are the children that would benefit from working with Raleigh international and other youth care work in deprived nations rather than rich kids.
March 7, 2019
Your idea of detention is clearly different to mine. A person who is capable of killing another person in cold blood, is a danger to society and must be removed unless and until they no longer pose a threat. Anything else is a dereliction of duty on the part of the state.
You trot out this ‘school for crime’ line so beloved of the do-gooder brigade, but you clearly don’t consider its true meaning. It is precisely because we have let prisons become holiday camps where fraternisation and a lack of discipline is all-pervasive, that we are churning these scumbags back out onto the streets. And it was done at do-gooders behest in the first place!
Prisoners need to be segregated to stop bad influences, but that tends not to occur to people who bleat on about their human rights. They should leave those at the prison gate as soon as they enter.
March 7, 2019
Merlin do you know how much is spent not just in money but also in volunteer time in the knife crime areas on Youth Clubs; After school clubs; youth councillors; Specialist youth support workers; general youth support workers; SEN Youth support; Christian and other religious group centres; charity section inc organisations like Comic Relief; lottery spending; sports clubs, athletic’s volunteers;
I don’t know I’m asking a genuine question because I’d like to compare it with my socially deprived town and County.
March 6, 2019
Very good point.
March 6, 2019
Good point but in the longer term the growth of artificial intelligence and robots is going to reduce employment possibilities for low skilled youngsters.
March 7, 2019
Not really it will create new different jobs.
March 6, 2019
@Kenneth; “I think I’ll scream when the next politician asks for more youth clubs when the answer is far more obvious and constructive.”
The vast majority of children 40-50 years ago grew up into law abiding people having never had a job before leaving school, but I bet many if not the majority took part in some form of character building after-schools, sports or youth clubs.
There are two reasons why children and young adults carry weapons, be it a knife or something else, either they have an insecure personality or they are psychopaths in the making, teachers (away from the classroom) and trained youth club workers etc. could often identify such people and either direct them to suitable self-help activities [1] or towards the professional help needed. Yes the child or parent could often access the same activities or help directly but only if they know help is needed and such help is available.
Youth clubs are not the solution (any more than a Saturday job is) but they are part of the solution and can be a valuable tool in identifying those likely to be perpetrators and victims, they can also act as a neutral meeting ground between youths “street culture” and authority, benefiting both.
[1] how many boxers have back-stories involving a troubled childhood or teenage years, perhaps even crime, before finding the discipline of regulation boxing
March 6, 2019
Poverty atricken Grimsby is not all stabby stabby whereas jobs capital of London is.
March 6, 2019
That is a view not aired enough.
March 6, 2019
Selling drugs is an easy way to make much more money than any paid work.
March 6, 2019
Well so often no action is taken by authorities even when they know full well that someone is a real danger or when they find people carrying combat knives. 80 knives found in about 1000 stop and searches in one example recently apparently. Yet some lefty dope still though the damage of the searching 1000 was damaging (to relations in certain sections of the community) and so not worth it. Better for these people’s children people to continue to stab and get stabbed they idiotically seemed to think!
The direct result of our no deterrent do nothing criminal justice system and the way the benefits system works.
I particularly remember a case in North London where someone this time with mental health problems stabbed four people to death. The authorities had had well over 100 letters from his mother and others endlessly pointing out what a danger the man was and complaining about their failure to act. Nothing of value was done until after the four murders. I know of two other cases where nothing was done even though the risk is very high indeed. A mental health issue (not my department) is the usual police response. Social services rarely do anything beyond prescribing some drugs that they may or may not take and releasing them again and again until a murder or serious stabbing takes place.
March 6, 2019
But then local authorities do have a no tolerance approach to parking 1 minute over time on a meter or putting a tyre in an empty bus lane. All a question of their priorities, one raises money but the other costs – so they do little or nothing if they possibly can.
March 6, 2019
Every convicted EU citizen has a right to come here. We also have cases where convicted murderers camera here and they murdered here! There is no supervision of these people.
Tell us JR why U.K. Criminals are licensed with right to recall, supervision etc and EU criminals can come here and have no such supervision? How does this make us safe, how does it help our security and safety in wanynway in May’s world? I heard her sell out intelligence and security for nothing in return in her servitude plan.
March 6, 2019
I appreciate what you’re saying.
If you’re actually interesting. And I know a bit about this.
You appear to be confusing what takes place in the public environment (parking, streets and litter collection) with people’s private issues (mental health, crime, poverty, abuse and so forth).
They are not remotely equivalent. Public environment matters can be dealt with by putting processes and procedures in place and are standardised. People are a far trickier business, and while you can standardise up to a point, each case is very individual and usually complex.
I hope that helps.
March 6, 2019
“People are a far trickier business, and while you can standardise up to a point, each case is very individual and usually complex.”
Merlin, this is why the current “one size fits all” approach commonly dubbed care in a cardboard box – sorry community, – is doomed to fail. If a person is picked up a second time, off meds and carrying a knife, to keep using the same solution means the system is utterly failing *them* as well as everyone else as it obviously did not resolved the issue.
March 6, 2019
I am not ‘confusing’ them at all merely pointing the odd priorities that govenment departments and staff so often have. They are rarely serving the public with what the public actually want and pay for. Usually just looking for another way to charge them even more.
March 6, 2019
Merlin,
There seem to be reasonable solutions to this problem that have reduced knife crimes in Glasgow and New York?
Certainly these should be investigated for the knife “hot spots” in the rest of the UK.
March 6, 2019
Lifelogic
Yes agree and my authority lost not a minute when sending me a penalty notice for driving in a “Bus Gate”(!!!!!).
Never mind that my car is small and white and the camera footage clearly showed a pickup truck with my number cloned on it.
Knowing how these “mistakes” run and run I was extremely stressed until it was sorted.
March 6, 2019
1. Random stop and search. 2. Eight years for carrying a knife. 3. Twelve years for using it. 4. Minimum 25 year tariff for knife killing. A dozen or two well publicised sentences like that should be enough.
March 6, 2019
But that won’t happen eeyore. These politicians keep making platitudes and assurances in order to con the public and sound tough, but they don’t carry them through. They are a failure and an utter waste of space!
Tad
March 6, 2019
LL, virtually nothing is done about the violence generated by those with mental health problems because there are so few safe places for the police to take the perpetrators to, thanks to that dreadful Care in the Community programme.
March 6, 2019
Indeed, they have clearly decided it is cheaper to have such dangerous people in the community and accept any collatoral stabbings and murders as a price they are clearly happy for others to pay.
March 6, 2019
Good morning.
I do not know what the, ‘Glasgow approach’ is, but what I do know is that Scotland has more police per 100,000 than does England.
Scotland – 324 / 100,000
England – 208 / 100,000
Even Zimbabwe has more police than we do !
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers
The problems we see today can be traced back to a certain Home Secretary and her policies. Look at the dates of the articles I link to below. The warnings were there but, as is her nature, she simply ignored them all.
March 6, 2019
I appreciate that our kind host did not want to publish all the links. Fair enough ! But if those with an interest wish to do their own research they will find plenty of examples.
March 6, 2019
The problem is that those extra 116 police per 1000 are mainly sitting at the bottom of a hill with a speed gun.
March 6, 2019
Follow the money as they say.
March 6, 2019
Sir Joe Soap
“….police per 1000 are mainly sitting at the bottom of a hill with a speed gun.”
I share the sentiment. however you will find most mobile speed enforcement units are actually manned by civilians, which is in itself illegal since for an offence to be deemed to have taken place requires the primary opinion of a officer of the law.
But hey, why let the law’s own contradictions get in the way of a good number.
March 6, 2019
The problem is Osborne austerity. You can see the same level of attrition in real government spending per capita right across the public sector.
The public get tnold nominal spending is increasing which camouflages the austerity. The police data has the typical profile sean across the public sector starting in 2010. See Commons Briefing papers SN00634
March 6, 2019
We have the highest taxes for 40 odd years, state sector employees are paid with pensions included about 50% more the the private sector on average so what austerity? The state sector is pissing cash down the drain all over the place.
Austerity just mean living within your means. Thanks to Blair and Brown incompetence the means were rather reduced.
March 6, 2019
Interesting. We were told we were all in this together. It seems that the public are still paying for the dross that caused this disaster in the first place, requiring cut-backs on essential services, only now, we have death on our streets. How long before guns replace knives?
If there is one thing I cannot stand, it is politicians who congratulate themselves on doing a good job, when the rest of us can clearly see they are useless and have made a complete balls of things. Contemporary crime is an accurate reflection of how things are in the real world.
Tad
March 6, 2019
They seem to have enough money for the International Development Fund ?
March 6, 2019
I agree that raw police numbers per capita (and per area) are important, but I would like any visible police to be visibly active. For example I have seen police standing around chatting to each other at relatively minor road traffic incidents in which traffic needs directing (lanes blocked), they may as well not be there. Perhaps individual officers are (understandably) tired, but there does seem to be an MO of stand back. (Obviously this is just what I have seen in one area and may not be general).
March 6, 2019
Bit difficult to compare two countries that are about the same geographical size when one has a population of 5 million and the other has a population of 53 million.
March 6, 2019
There is no need to police a whole empty Scottish glen. Unless you have a problem with marauding grouse ? Cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester need more police as there are more people. And where there is more crime. Hence the need for more spending per capita.
March 6, 2019
My local town of over 25,000 people has a town centre police desk open 4 hours a day during the week, and 2 PCSO’s on patrol etc. (I believe).
On average we should have 52 coppers according to your figures!
Where are they all hiding, and what are they doing?
March 6, 2019
There in Scotland !
March 6, 2019
Look at Tory approach to drugs. Police no longer treat it with any seriousness ness. Hate crime is more important from the govt down approach.
May has imposed a sugar tax on us because we do not know what is good to eat. In contrast she allows/decriminalises cannabis use. Unbelievably illegal drugs are now tested for users before use! You could not make it up! Not seize and put offender in rehab but tested and allowed to use! Even though there is evidence of cross county drug dealing using children!
This is not a Tory party in sense of the word. It has been taken over by a left wing Blaire tribute act with some weird liberal tendencies.
Leave March on 16 th March until 29th March to protest against May sell out.
March 6, 2019
‘Even though there is evidence of cross county drug dealing using children!’
Happens here every day of the week! Even grown-up drug dealers are open about it because there aren’t enough police to deal with it. We have a de facto breakdown in law and order, and still the politicians do not respond conclusively and decisively.
Makes me wonder what the hell we’re paying them 74 grand a year for!
Tad
March 6, 2019
I wonder how many police per 100,000 there are in London alone? Do you count Transport Police, armed response units and community support officers in comparisons? According to Homicide in Scotland 2017-18: statistics on gov.scot Glasgow had 11 knife murders last year, the average age of the victims was 39.5 and male, 69% were committed residential indoors and 22% outdoor public places (street, footpath and open outdoor area) with 1 in prison, Glasgow City has a large fall in homicides 54% since 2008-9. I wonder how this compares to London perpetrators, victims, police, transport police and community support officer numbers. (I mention transport police because it seems a lot of times crimes are committed at or nearby public transport, and I’m not aware of other Cities employing specific transport police forces)
March 6, 2019
I do not know the dispositions of the Police in London or elsewhere. But I do know there are a lot of ‘armed police’ outside the Prime Minister’s London residence. So she’s safe whilst the ones that are paying for her protection suffer due to her policies whist Home Secretary.
March 6, 2019
May thinks cutting police numbers by 20,000 has no effect on violent crime……………..duh really……………….now remind us which Home Secretary cut those numbers and insulted the Police regularly at their Conferences, also stopped their most recent pay rise whilst giving those deserving politicos theirs?????????????
March 6, 2019
The country’s top police officer has directly contradicted Mrs May on knife crime. Cressida Dick says it is linked to police cuts. Mrs May says it is not. I know who I believe and it is not the politician.
Meanwhile yesterday BMW, Nissan and Vauxhall delivered us a triple whammy of great Brexit news which will rightly have workers in Oxford, Sunderland and Ellesmere Port worried.
And we learnt perhaps the most disturbing thing about this government so far. Its Brexit failure has now led to treatment sessions being cancelled for cancer patients. No ifs, no project fear – this is project fact.
The Royal College of Radiologists says its members have had to cancel sessions because the availability of unstoreable radioactive isotopes after a no deal. Brexit is uncertain.
What do you say to a cancer patient whose treatment is delayed because of your Brexit? I only ask because if I were responsible for a delay to their treatment I would struggle to live with myself.
March 6, 2019
Not a single session has been cancelled. Stop scaremongering.
March 6, 2019
Andy
I’ve read that story in the Independent and on the BBC and no treatment sessions have been cancelled as you claim.
The headline is “Brexit could cause delays….”the sub heading is “Brexit could upset crucial supply lines”
I think your spinning of this story is a disgrace and an apology and a retraction is required.
March 6, 2019
I’d ask why anyone would interfere with the import of the isotopes. Why would they? Project fact? Or project hysteria?
March 6, 2019
Exactly, it is pure nonsense and project fear on steroids.
March 6, 2019
Are cancer patients able to be treated in the 160 or so countries around the world which aren’t in the EU? Can people get these isotopes eg in the US?
March 6, 2019
Yes – of course they can. But that is because those countries have international agreements to allow it.
Isotopes are radioactive and fall under international nuclear rules. Our nuclear rules are currently shared with the EU and are dealt with by Euratom.
But you voted out of that and you have nothing to replace it. With no deal you have effectively made it illegal for them to send isotopes.
Will you tell the cancer patients or would you like the doctor to tell them?
March 6, 2019
In other news the UK authority that looks after compliance issues for the nuclear industry said they were ready for brexit and said there was no reason for any delay on imports of any products.
Come on andy just admit it.
You dont have the first clue what you are talking about.
March 6, 2019
You really must keep up before you talk crap.
Taken from another website today:-
“BEIS in its most recent update on Euratom have confirmed the final international agreement with Japan is now in place, which means the UK now has all the international agreements required to ensure that civil nuclear trade with our key international partners can continue following withdrawal from Euratom.
You do know who BEIS is I suppose?
March 6, 2019
More nonsense from you. New nuclear cooperation agreements with key countries are set up as is a UK regulatory authority to replace Euratom. You may be right that the EU will launch an embargo of such products or indeed a general blockade but it seems highly unlikely.
March 7, 2019
Euratom and ECJ control is being replaced by bilateral NCA’s already agreed with our major nuclear partners – USA, Australia, Canada and Japan.
The EU can choose to continue cooperation on energy matters and nuclear trade or not, but it appears they may need to take back boatloads of toxic, nuclear material they are legally responsible for currently in the UK for reprocessing.
March 6, 2019
No, nothing is ”delayed because of Brexit”. Delay happens because there are too many people for too few services. No doubt Andy will interpret that as being ”xenophobic” (though why, I’m not sure – it’s difficult to unravel his/her convoluted thinking).
Perhaps Andy hasn’t noticed yet the flaw in his/her ”argument”. Brexit hasn’t happened yet. So why would the ”availability of unstoreable… etc” be taking place resulting in cancelled sessions?
It has been said time and time and time again that there is no reason why we should blockade our own ports to prevent imports of medicines, or anything else, if there is no TRADE deal. Of course this is Project Fear. Don’t rely on Facebook for your information, Andy – even remain radiologists can use it.
March 6, 2019
Choreographed news like that is usually fake news. The death throes of desperate remainers. Your recent posts are showing the same utter desperation. Only 23 days to go. Otherwise, the UK dissapears as a separate nation. Has the BBC covered this yet?
March 6, 2019
Andy, have the RCR members cancelled sessions in advance of Brexit in advance of any problems?
March 6, 2019
I agree that why should imports be blocked but in this regimented world could there be, after brexit, some regulation, law, a needed scrap of paper, a stamp on a paper, a signature all of which not now needed could upset the smooth running?
March 6, 2019
Fuddy Duddy why would the British Customs make it awkward to import essential drugs and treatments, do we do this with any other Country in the world? Why on earth did we allow such control over the UK on this? Does Australia have this problem? Singapore? Switzerland? Japan? I want to know why this group are cancelling cancer peoples treatments, if Andy is correct, now?
March 7, 2019
He is not correct.
It is the the most dreadful example yet of Project Fear Mark Two.
March 6, 2019
Dick’s shamelessly using the issue to expand her forces budget. It’s classic public sector parasitism. They know no other way of extracting maximum value from limited resources. It’s take, take and take again and we the nations’ exposed to disorder thanks to politicians and public sector servants abdicating their responsibilities
They’re employed by the taxpayer to keep the public safe. They are failing in their duty because at the end of the day they’re never held accountable for their inaction
And where’s Khan? He’s too busy playing the race card against the utterly inept and spineless Tories
The public are praying for a party that elevates the national interest above party political parasitism
Marxist Labour and this useless Tory party genuinely couldn’t give a monkey’s about the real issues
They’re too busy signalling their virtue
Grow up Tories and show some leadership fgs
March 6, 2019
It seems like the Royal College of Radiologists is trying to pre-empt possible supply problems by creating unnecessary problems…
The problem seems to relate to the short/variable half-life of the radiopharmaceutical products used for some treatments, so rather than make appointments that MAY need to be cancelled the RCR are saying to their members don’t make the appointment in the first place – this is not exactly helpful…
https://www.rcr.ac.uk/sites/default/files/no_deal_brexit_planning_guidance_for_nuclear_medicine_teams_march_2019.pdf
March 6, 2019
Why are these produced outside of the UK? Are we not capable, which Country in the EU are we importing them from? What is the delivery detail? Are they flown in or shipped in Same day, next day, 48 hours later or more? Which Country has said they will put export delays on? Or is this a EU Commission threat to our patients?
March 7, 2019
We were a world leader with Amersham International which was sold to General Electric; it is now part of GE Healthcare. 🙁
March 7, 2019
I’m struggling to understand why we would ship out such an important short order essential product in the first place if we used to produce it in the UK, anything can go wrong with long-distance transport from weather, breakdowns, accidents, driving hours rules, shipping delays, aircraft grounded.
March 7, 2019
To a-tracy above ^^^^Agreed…
IMO is all down to money and short term profits…
March 6, 2019
Andy
“The country’s top police officer has directly contradicted Mrs May on knife crime. Cressida Dick says it is linked to police cuts. Mrs May says it is not”
Well Andy Ms Dick would say that.
It has nothing to do with police numbers. It’s down to certain types of people who think it acceptable to stick knives in others. No amount of police can change the way a culture thinks and behaves.
“Meanwhile yesterday BMW, Nissan and Vauxhall delivered us a triple whammy of great Brexit news which will rightly have workers in Oxford, Sunderland and Ellesmere Port worried.”
Scaremongering, basically. Besides, we don’t take kindly to threats. Mrs May might do but we don’t.
“…….. I would struggle to live with myself.”
To be honest Andy I thought you did anyway, what with lugging that chip around.
March 6, 2019
My cousin works as a passport control officer. She told me during a visit yesterday that as a result of Brexit EU immigrants are already being replaced by thousands of extra people from India, Pakistan etc.
Brexiteers no doubt welcome this development.
March 7, 2019
As long as they are legally entitled to come here that is fine.
Your racial smears against any who support leaving the EU is in poor taste.
March 7, 2019
We want to get to a situation where we control our own immigration policy and thereby only take those we need, rather than conform to some prescriptive edict from detached people we cannot vote out when they get it so disastrously wrong, as in the case of the EU.
March 9, 2019
Well, actually, no. It is not Brexiteers’ policy to replace millions of EU immigrants with millions of non-EU immigrants. Immigration control is not for economic purposes; it’s in defence of our indigenous culture and our contribution to world population control. Our related economic objective is increasing GDP per CAPITA and investment in labour saving will be necessary. Robotics and AI will be part of the picture. Another will be reduced shopping hours so as to improve retail productivity.
March 6, 2019
So Theresa May is making more idiotic promises on workers rights. This following on from her slush fund for Labour areas to win Labour support for her appalling, even worse than remain, deal.
Will someone please remove this dire, dishonest, socialist woman before she does even more damage to the country and her party. Please replace with a pro Brexit real Conservative. Someone who can see that the Criminal Justice System needs to deter and prevent crime not just clear up the bodies afterwards and not just endlessly worry about the gender and colour mix of police officers and other PC lunacy.
March 6, 2019
Her latest ploy is to give MPs an hour before voting to read the latest on the WA.
Scoundrel.
March 6, 2019
Who will rid us of this appalling socialist Woman?
March 6, 2019
Even the dire Carney is coming round to accepting he was wrong on a no deal Brexit!
Jest leave properly, cut taxes, cut red tape, cut government and cut the green crap. May deal is a sick joke!
March 6, 2019
Cut employment red tape too and get rid of “making tax digital drivel” yet another damaging lunacy distracting business from being more productive and wasting their money!
March 6, 2019
Not her latest ploy: she has done that each time with the Cabinet.
March 6, 2019
IW, (re one hour to read…) as long as they continue to accept this sort of abuse of power nothing will change.
March 6, 2019
I think that that’s time in which she can check with the Chief Whip exactly which lobby she has to go through.
March 6, 2019
Ian Wragg
“Her latest ploy is to give MPs an hour before voting to read the latest on the WA.”
I don’t think MP’s will be impressed with that childish stunt, and it could very well backfire.
March 6, 2019
Which workers rights would you like to scrap? You seem very passionate about it so you must have thought about it.
And workers should get the courtesy of knowing which of their rights go as a result of your Brexit.
So what is it? Paid maternity leave? Parental leave? Paid sickness? Guaranteed holidays? Working hours? Unfair dismissal?
March 6, 2019
She lies on an industrial scale and colludes with the competition giving away all advantages for nothing in return. Never seen anything like it my lifetime and she goes to ……………….Church. Must spend half her Sunday in the confessional……..forgive me Father for I have sinned……..
March 6, 2019
So even the dire Mark Carney is coming round to a real Brexit not being a such a problem. It is a huge boon you dope! Or will be if we cut taxes, cut government, cut green crap energy and cut red tape on leaving!
May deal is dire non of the advantages and all of the negatives!
March 6, 2019
I blame green crap energy. I’m surprised you failed to mention it.
March 6, 2019
She’s buying the Labour vote. And I do not mean the one’s outside the HoC.
March 6, 2019
It would help if we knew exactly who was in the country.
Yearly we import thousands of young males who see carrying weapons as normal.
Cutting police and border forces is an incredibly stupid thing to do.
Like so many other decisions made by May.
March 6, 2019
Not if you do not believe in them. 😉
March 6, 2019
Adolescent males get drawn into gangs as poor substitute for the normal route by which a boy distances his parents and becomes a man. This stage is universal and in all pre industrial societies had a ritual expression. An apprenticeship, a period in the desert, a role in the harvest ,membership of football team. Despite wide divergence the common factor is the company of adult men in a guiding capacity. For various societal reasons boys find themselves alone and gather into groups of the lost
Violent crime is not increasing overall and rather than panic we need to solve the problem like any other. A glance at any figures on the position will tell you knife crime is part of a wider dysfunction we should address albeit with less resources ..thanks to ….
But throwing money at it is not the answer . Think first, act , do what is required yourself these are the things the old decent Conservative Party used to understand in its bones.
Every rugby team coach , Akela , youth group organiser is stopping knife crime . They are not paid
Sadly the modern Conservative Party will think no further than using this as another way to engender ethnic distrust as they are doing today.
March 6, 2019
Yep, it’s all down to giving the young opportunities for sport, work, travel and a bit of danger along with socialising. Wrapping them up in a May blanket of restrictions on all of these won’t work.
March 6, 2019
I don’t recall a knife epidemic in 1950 before the EU and when we were piss poor.
March 6, 2019
You forget the Glasgow razor gangs of the 1920s and 30s. After terrorising the city for a decade they were stopped by a combination of aggressive policing under Chief Constable Sir Percy Sillitoe and exemplary sentencing by the fearsome John Carmont.
Within a week of Lord Carmont’s handing down the first 10-year sentence the violence stopped.
March 7, 2019
The Left/BBC cite 1948 as Year Zero and insinuate violence was worse then.
March 6, 2019
Anonymous
Ah but then we had National Service.
March 6, 2019
That is not a sensible comment. I can’t think of a single Conservstive MP who seeks to “engender ethnic distrust”, can you?
March 6, 2019
With no difficulty whatsoever –
March 7, 2019
So who???? And not by your warped standards either….
March 6, 2019
“Sadly the modern Conservative Party will think no further than using this as another way to engender ethnic distrust as they are doing today.” Can you explain what you mean by this?
I have raised two boys to men they didn’t seek out gangs nor did they need the company of adult men? Nor have my nephews and uncles including those from low income, broken-homes. I would say the one thing most of them had in common they worked for pin money newspaper rounds, cleaning, helping out in local shops.
March 6, 2019
A saurday job at Woolworths, a local cafe or a paper round is a jolly go thing for children. ALAS the red tape and new laws have made this more difficult and often illegal.
March 6, 2019
I strongly support the statements in your first paragraph regarding the need of young men to spend time with grown men who can instill adult values and respect for women and older people.
March 6, 2019
Yes, but the right young men with a moral code and good ethics. The dross that is out there right now need to be physically prevented from having any influence over younger more impressionable people. Only custody can guarantee that. Also, prisons should be a place of segregation, not casual fraternisation.
Tad
March 7, 2019
Syd, Where are all the adult man from the knife carrying teens life? Where are their Uncles; Grandfathers; Fathers; How do you know they spend no time with grown men?
We’re told Comic Relief, Sports Relief, Lottery Funds support lots of youth groups, youth activities, turning people from crime with the use of creative pursuits – is this true or not? What is the breakdown of spend in the biggest crime areas. We are all in the dark grasping at solutions, is it all about running drugs and bringing in money that their parents need in the home so that they don’t deter them. My children were at home on school nights by 8pm but I didn’t need my children to bring in an income.
Can we have investigations on what support their father provides, are they even in the UK, are the father’s working, are the mothers working or at home on benefits, free housing etc.
Can we bring the army (manpower redirected) can police officers and extra special constables be put on the streets with trained officers in these areas, can we recruit more officers from these communities onto the Streets of London (and other Cities where knife crime is becoming endemic) in these key areas to put a stop to this for the next quarter. No more contemplating, talking about it, talking about the dead children lets act then review.
March 6, 2019
I prefer to believe the Commissioner of the Met Police when it comes to police numbers rather than the ex Home Secretary and now Prime Minister and Trevor Philips, the ex Head of Race Relations with regard to the cultural issues..
We have seen the disgraceful consequences of political correctness with the grooming of young woman, ignoring homophobia, feedback from the Inspcctorate on unacceptable practices in Faith schools and now knife crime. To this add David Gauke who doesn’t want to lock people up.
Until, as Trevor Philips says, you are prepared to acknowledge the politically difficult and deal with the communities, invest more money in the pilice allowing them to ‘stop and search’ use scanning equipment as in airports, honour your promise to make sentences for carrying a knife a real deterrent etc all we will get is empty words as in the debate you took part in.
And in the bigger picture the fault and therefore the blame can be laid very squarely at the door of Theresa May and your party and from reading that the Home Secretary is getting no support from her on what he wants to do, this will continue.
March 6, 2019
Children as young as 12 are not considered adults. These were children and allowing those in power to describe them as such it a vile attempt at watering down the truth and the scale of dereliction of duty by both officials and government.
March 6, 2019
Poor parenting is the problem and immigrants often seem to think the UK is safe when it isn’t so let the kids “go out”.
March 6, 2019
Contrary to the media coverage there was no contradiction on what T May and C Dick said both right (for once) there is not “direct correlation” but clearly police numbers are one factor.
Then again if the police chose entirely the wrong priorities number may well make not difference at all. The higher taxes to recruit more police could actually make things worse.
Though arithmetically challenged Dianne Abbott seem to think they only cost about £50 each PA or something similar!
March 6, 2019
Having listened to an endless stream of do-gooders, many MPs seem to think prison should be that last resort, but criminals need to have a record as long as your arm before it ever gets to that stage. Clearly, whatever intervention there has been to that point hasn’t worked.
I argue that prison should be the first recourse, and it shouldn’t be a holiday camp. A criminal’s return to society should be dependent upon the completion of a course of rehabilitation, but that wouldn’t do, too many ineffectual do-gooders with vested interests would be out of a job.
Tad
March 6, 2019
When you bring in “refugees” from war zones who kill with AK automatic rifles don’t be surprised when they come to the UK and carry knives and stab people. I have seen police on TV say that drug dealers were shocked by the violence that was metered out by gangs from war zones……… Yes lack of police carrying out stop and search have not reduced these crimes but you need to understand the reason for the upswing in violence.
Having the naive “social Marxist” belief that all cultures are as good as one another needs to be eliminated.
March 7, 2019
Well said!
Tad
March 6, 2019
A child brought up in a stable home, where mum and dad are committed to each other, work out the difficulties of life together rather than split up, is much less likely to end up in gangs and violence.
What the country then needs to do is to encourage and promote responsibility in relationships. The authorities should be saying to young people they should take relationships seriously, with virginity lost only after marriage vows are taken and having taken on board the relationship is permanent. This really works for children, because they have confidence in a stable home.
The reality in our society is that casual relationships are accepted, even “cool”, and the products of absent fathers is the responsibility of the benefits system. What is also “cool” is a bad boy image and the drug trade. Anyone doing the right thing, achieving in school, then embarking in a long term relationship (ugh – how boring!) is somehow to be despised.
March 6, 2019
Freedom to stop and search without being accused of racial profiling and much, much tougher sentences for those found with knives would go a long way to solving the problem.
March 6, 2019
No-one believes a word May says on this or anything else so we can discount her claim. It seems likely at least that the reduction in the numbers of community support officers in particular has led to problems in gathering local knowledge and feedback on gang activities. Things are also not helped by our current useless Mayor of London whose first actions as always are to try to shift the blame elsewhere rather than take any positive action.
March 6, 2019
If the Conservatives think they can buck democracy they didn’t learn their lesson from the markets.
March 6, 2019
Malevolent knife-users stow them in nearby bushes of flats or similarly-planned concealed places for rapid access & disposal to avoid being caught carrying. Some are reported as preparing bicycle spokes with sinister lethal intent, yet efficient lack of detection & evidential guilt.
The cause is the attitude of the wrongdoers, & the absence of enough good citizens. In earlier times, boy scouts used routinely to wear 6in sheath knives on leather belts in public, even in midnight hikes or run-out ventures at camp, but with without intent to use them harmfully. The streets in most areas were regarded as safe places for people to be. Borstal was then a means of training youngsters away from crime at their first instance of deviance.
Young folk should be guided into active pursuits of good intent. They could enjoy productive lives of fulfilment instead of generating misery for themselves & many others.
March 6, 2019
The Tories have embraced liberal left fascism. Censorship, a contempt for the truth and a willingness to do the bidding for Labour’s client state is all part of a Tory MP’s daily responsibilities
March 6, 2019
Enclose, concierge, and knife arch the estates which produce knife carrying and gangs. Make school day longer and make responsible adults collect from school.Parents who cant be bothered shouldn’t be parents.
Urban attitudes to child safety are not the attitudes of safe successful middle class families.
A long school day should be the sort of things ind schools provide, homework clubs, sports, enrichment.Some Ind schools give them tea and toast or an evening meal as well.
Stabbers are lacking in empathy because they have not been protected and considered by parents and everyone else. Once they are stabbers its very hard to fix it. No treatment program instils empathy.
March 6, 2019
Governments have caused this escalation in crime. ( And why pray is “knife crime” in any way different from murder and attempted murder?).
Our present pickle could be likened to 18th century London when many were forced to flee the countryside because of enclosures and to find work in the city. Not windfarms or fracking then but because landowners realised there was money to be made from agriculture and stole common land.
…” But let the greater villain loose
That steals the common from the goose”….
So having crammed many into London..confused,disoriented,stripped of their culture/customs and forced to clock watch for the first time in their lives many turned to crime. The streets of London were not paved with gold then and neither are they now…yet much is always promised.
As ever, having caused the problem the solution found by the authorities was to blame the victims.
So they were hanged.
(btw these incomers from all over the country were called immigrants which is where the left got their mantra from…” We’ve always had immigration.”)
The present situation isn’t working is it? And how can liberal lefty govts wedded to open borders do anything about it?
Well they can do what they always do…wring their limp hands!
Or is all this sudden concern in the media meant to divert attention from pig’s ear Brexit??
March 6, 2019
If there were more frontline police on the streets – where they are needed – ergo, there would be less knife crime.
March 6, 2019
20 policemen up and down a high street on a Saturday night stopping and searching loads of people randomly – with Cameron’s promised FIVE YEARS in prison for anyone caught with a knife. Word would soon spread.
I’d be very happy if a policeman stopped and searched me. I’d be most reassured.
March 6, 2019
Then go and say something nasty on Twitter. There are loads there just waiting to pounce.
March 6, 2019
I suggest:-
1) Much more focus by those police officers who are available on patrolling the streets
2) a rigorous stop and search programme with politicians who try to make it more difficult with silly accusations of racism like David Lammy MP called out for the disfunctional fools they are
3) proper punishment for anyone caught with a knife without good reason
4) the police, at least for a temporary emergency period, to stop wasting time on PC enforcement such as ‘hate crime’ on social media and chasing the ghosts of dead people for sex offences
5) Parliament to debate the drug laws and then either repeal them and legalise drugs or else order the police and courts to enforce them with vigour
March 6, 2019
The prime aim of a Govt is to protect its citizens as they go about their daily lives.
Prison works in that while the criminal is locked up the public is protected from their ministrations.
I suggest that mandatory 40 year sentences for murder without parole committed during crime would remove the predatory and feral in time. Low cost, high security accomodation is possible if we concentrate primarily on detention and not touchy feely items like rehabilitation. Sentences for multiple crimes should be consecutive not concurrent.
We should place a very high value on the life of the innocent law abiding citizen against the possible reform and value to society of a serious offender, sorry criminal,
March 6, 2019
Could prisons be cheaply off-shored for violent crimes? Preferably to relatively unpleasant places – you want a varied diet, air-conditioning and a TV – then work and don’t commit crime. Surely I am not being unPC?….
March 6, 2019
I heard that knife crime is at its highest since 1946. What was going on in 1946? I thought we were comparatively lay abiding then.
March 6, 2019
A deceit.
“… since recotds began in 1946” is the truth but the leftists claim we were always barbarians.
March 6, 2019
The lives and the welfare of the most vulnerable are being sacrificed on the altar of liberal left politics. It is a politics that’s been constructed to gain political influence and exert social control. It is the politics of the left and this politics has been disgracefully taken up by this PM and many of her lackey MPs in the Tory party
March 6, 2019
A shortage of useful dads is the problem.
It’s what the left wanted.
March 6, 2019
Our civilisation is doomed as this epidemic is just the beginning. The solution means being judgemental and the ruling Left only apply that to us – the people who know how to steer their kids away from trouble.
Newmania here rules it out in his Mayist Nasty Party way.
March 6, 2019
All you draw attention to is relevant. Look at who and what sits over this area and others. None other than the Home Office a mine lode of PC and disconnect with reallity if ever there was one. Look at who kicked it off , Roy Jenkins and who presided over it’s inability to grasp any problem that faced it. Not in historical order but I list Windrush, immigration from wherever it came, illegal immigrants, deportation of convicted criminals, and now knife crime. Who presided over it during this period of gross disfunction, none other than our PM. She who rushes to suggest that 20,000 polcemen less on our streets and decimation of youth services, not to mention the drug culture, has lttle to do with it. It has everything to do with it. A woman promoted way beyond her pay grade who continues on her path of creating havoc.
March 6, 2019
Young people and boys in particular rarely give thought to the consequences of their actions unless the consequence is immediate and likely. The weatherman on morning TV yesterday had a point. Prison is not a deterrent. It does however offer the general population protection by getting the threat off the streets so should be used.
We are reaping the dividend of giving children unlimited rights and allowing them to throw those rights in the face of authority. “You can’t touch me I have rights”.
A clip round the ear from teacher or the local constable and stop and search would go a long way to solving these issues.
As for leaving these people in school to disrupt and dominate the rest of the class that really is the rights brigade taking their doctrine to the nth degree. Exclude and put them in an arena run with military discipline. We often hear that ex-soldiers would make good teachers.
March 6, 2019
Sometimes the cause for carrying a knife is that there may be a gang or person who may attack . It is a defence weapon . This is similar to the gun carrying Americans. The question is are knives more easily used if they are in possession and carried around.?
March 6, 2019
The escalation of violent crime is entirely the result of political correctness, which is why we cannot have an honest discussion about it; the perpetrators enjoy “Protected Characteristic” status.
You’ll continue with all the usual platitudes while the problem continues to escalate.
However, if anyone does attempt to tell the truth they will have their collar felt and their Facebook & Twitter accounts will be shut down.
March 6, 2019
The elephant in the room.
It’s why our civilisation is doomed.
March 6, 2019
I see the Daily Mail is reporting of a knife carrying drug dealer who has been arrested twice, and still only given a suspended sentence . The knife crime problem is the result of ineffectual politically correct policing and a legal system averse to punishing people. The whole attempt to make the problem into a health issue sums this up, its a wonderful wheeze to have lots more committees, loads more reports, be able to import a whole new vocabulary that bamboozles people with a pseudo science which is load of verbose guff, and of course the end result , is to not have an end result , for its a great little earner, and of course the only recommendation will be to bleed the tax payer of loads more money.
March 6, 2019
Off-topic, some good news, perhaps:
https://euobserver.com/tickers/144333
“The Polish government has started drafting a bill to allow the 6,000 British citizens living in Poland the right to stay even in the event of a no-deal Brexit, the Associated Press news agency reports.”
So that’s a mere 6,000 UK citizens in Poland, as against an estimated 900,000 people who were born in Poland who are now resident in the UK, plus maybe another 100,000 Polish citizens who have been born here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_the_United_Kingdom
Which makes EU “freedom of movement of persons” a rather one-sided process.
I will add here that the father of our next door, perfectly well behaved and friendly, neighbouring family on one side is Polish, and that causes us no more difficulties than when we had a Japanese family living on the other side, and in neither case would I agree to them being treated unreasonably and unjustly by our government, as was mooted by Theresa May; however the big difference is that we have not thrown open the doors of our country to unlimited and uncontrolled numbers of Japanese citizens so that a rather small percentage of UK companies can have an easier time exporting a rather small percentage of our national output to Japan.
My caveat “perhaps” is because, as I recall, when our newly appointed Prime Minister Theresa May set off on a tour to talk about this with leaders of individual EU member states, having stoked up unnecessary and undeserved fear among EU citizens already settled here, she was told it would have to be decided at the EU level.
March 6, 2019
Denis..just what is the point? you do go on..and on
Is this because you prefer Japanese to polish or is it that you want to see the back of them all? It’s hard to make out what you really want.
March 7, 2019
Teresa May MP is his MP and he voted for her. A highly intelligent man has been duped by a fifth rate con artist. It is not easy to take. But she was once the Leader of my local council and, the things she did there were not much different.
Some people get power and want to use it for good, and others for pure evil. I think we all know what category, Denis’s MP falls into 😉
March 7, 2019
People who are worthy tend to take others at their word when they promise to do something, as in the old mantra, my word is my bond.
Mrs. May comes across as being very sincere, and even I voted Tory last time on the strength of her Lancaster House speech. Without the contributions from Denis, it would be difficult to see the bigger picture and thereby get to know when somebody is a downright con artist, so I say keep them coming!
Tad
March 7, 2019
But it is much harder to make out what you mean by this comment, or why you even bothered to make it.
March 6, 2019
The PM is hopelessly out of touch on this knife crime. When Police commissioners both former and present say losing police numbers has had an impact, they are telling the truth. Whole teams investigating drugs and gangs have been shut down in London. Huge numbers of Youth Services have been decimated in the name of austerity.
The Criminal Justice system is creaking at the seams down to lack of funding. I have witnessed this myself recently in Jury service on 2 trials both related to drug and knife crime which were being trialled some 30 months after the respective incidents occurred.
Crack cocaine and heroin are now prolific and readily available to those who search it. Ordering a delivery is quicker than ordering a pizza.
This is all in around your constituency Sir John.
March 6, 2019
I guarantee that the one thing that will make the greatest contribution to tackling the gang/knife crime problem will not be done. Where are the fathers? We have created a society in which fathers are often discarded and written out of the script. We hear voices saying that men need to be feminised. The hard fact is that boys and girls are behaviourally different – just watch them at play. Boys (and girls for that matter) need both a female and a male role model present in their lives. May I suggest that the father might be a good starting place and a much better one that some state appointed mentor/advocate/friend or whatever. The answer is not more government intervention. The answer is to put in place policies that encourage couples to stay together when they have children. The data is unequivocal; parents and children in households where the parents stay together do better on every metric. Until this is recognised, we will continue to see gang culture flourish as young men, in particular, seek out male role models and guidance, which will be lacking both at home and at school, if they do in fact attend school.
Meanwhile, I will not be holding my breath.
March 6, 2019
+1
Advertising campaigns now tell us in soothing voices that a father at home is not normal, in effect.
“When it comes to family what’s normal ?”
We’ve surrendered to the Left and this is the result – oven chips kill more people than knives btw.
March 6, 2019
Any crime is ultimately the responsibility of the perpetrators. However the conditions that lead to serious crimes such as knife crime may be numerous and interwoven, and hence not easily undone – but that is not an excuse for crime.
Allowing massive amounts of unchecked immigration both legal and illegal doesn’t help.
In terms of allowing the conditions to fester, Mrs May is one of the worse perpetrators, owing to her reduction in police numbers, PC approach to any new police recruitment and training, and ending of stop and search.
Mrs May is unfit for office.
March 6, 2019
This country (but it is far from being alone) is reaping what it has sown. While one cannot absolve TM from blame, there is a much wider scenario involved: both: “the people get the government they deserve”, and: “the government gets the people they deserve”.
A godless (post-Christian influence) society must necessarily have lost its bearings.
I am interested to see how very many Biblical references are made in the press – probably very often without realising where they came from: “feet of clay” comes to mind (from the prophet Daniel 2,500 years ago – not an ignorant peasant! a Prime Minister of the Babylonian empire.) – totally relevant to the weakness of democracy at the end of the times of Gentile world rule! Folk, even knowledgeable ones like JR do not seem to be able to see this big picture.
March 6, 2019
But rejoice, our Lee sees it.
March 6, 2019
The rot set in during Mrs May’s tenure at the Home Office. Of course police numbers make a difference, as does stop and search. Are people coming into the country properly vetted regarding their criminal past? I doubt it.
What I do not see mentioned is crime and until crime is tackled on a daily basis, so will the senseless killings. When I say crime I mean all crime including petty crime but at the very core of the crime epidemic is drug crime. Theft, burglaries, shoplifting bag and phone snatching, all to get money to buy drugs. The involvement of children in County Lines is nothing less than a national scandal.
Drug addiction then leads to physical and mental problems for the users and a drain on the NHS, a fall in productivity and people driving under the influence of drugs.
It would be a great help if courts were to come down heavily on drug trafficking with life sentences that really mean life.
March 6, 2019
I live most of my life in Spain. If I visit my local town, a five Km trip, the local police are on the street helpng parents deliver kids to school or away from it. Iwill almost certainly see a pair of Guardia Civil trafficos on motorbikes or in cars. If I pause an hour for a coffee at least two locol police will stroll past. Much the same on the way home. In ten years I must have been slowed at as many ambushes by Guardia or National police, all tooled up with machine guns and tyre shredders at a choke point. Presumably on drug or terrorist busts. In England you may experience the same around Parliament or Downing Street but in the rest of the country visible policing is as rare as chickens teeth. May thinks this irrelevant, Cressida Dick and I know it is not. For the fantasy fifth largest economy in the World, an accolade Spain has no pretention towards, I find it pathetic. Spain may have many shortfalls in it’s governance, depending on your expectations, but it does try to keep it’s citizens safe.
March 7, 2019
Spain has 533 police / 100,000 of the population.
England has 208 / 100,000 of the population. Less than half.
See my link above.
Which is what government is for.
March 6, 2019
What are we saying to the young and those coming to our country from less “civilised” parts of the world?
No Death Penalty,
Grooming isn’t OK – but Political Correctness is worse,
It’s one Law for the rich, another for the poor,
Our Police won’t bother with minor robberies, or thieves stealing from Supermarkets by self pricing Avocados as carrots,
Pension funds are raided with impunity,
Anonymity on the Web.
Weapons aren’t the problem. I grew up in the days of the Mods & Rockers. Not as a gang member – but carrying a knife in ‘certain areas’ was a no brainer. I swapped knife for gun when I joined the Services. Weapons are tools, (someone could ed) kill with a screwdriver or their hands, or a rental car. Weapons are all around us, all the time.
Why don’t mobile phones have the ability to take a photo and send it, with location, at the press of a panic button?
For those at threat – permit pepper sprays with ‘sticky’ identifying microscopic particles, combined with audio defence.
Surely by now we should be able to give our police a discrete portable metal detector, along with a taser.
Social mobility has a cost too. How true the Igbo and Yoruba attributed proverb “It takes a village to raise a child” but we have destroyed communities in the persuit of ‘betterment’. Single parent ‘families’ are tacitly promoted, generations are fragmented.
We have remorselessly pursued a “permissive” society and we wonder at the result – snowflake ‘entitlement’ with minimal responsibility. “When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back”.
March 6, 2019
If knife crime is not seriously addressed where will the youths turn to defend themselves from even bigger knives, swords and machetes? Guns. And we shall end up like the USA. Already London has overtaken NYC with its murders soaring while the incumbent and hopelessly out of his depth, Mayor, twiddles his fingers blames Government and is more concerned with advertisements on the Underground that show a female body in a bathing suit. Also prefering to block any visit by the democratically elected POTUS, while turning a blind eye to other world leaders with bad human rights records who arrive here on State visits. He gets no expert guidance from the Commissioner of The Met either because …………….
Along with British democracy, law and order is clearly in decay. And the blame lies in Number 10 for allowing it. With an inept PM and a hopeless Mayor of London, the Capital is seriously handicapped.
London and the whole Country needs change! Let’s get Britain and Britishness back on track!
March 6, 2019
Thank you JR for attending and reporting on this perplexing issue.
I believe the root of the problem is about PERSONAL IDENTITY. Childhood innocence is such a tender thing, but in navigating adolescence, the idealism of youth is vulnerable to so many formative influences, many of them destructive. In a multi-cultural society some are understandably more vulnerable than others.
Righteous government respects differences, but is compassionate, always stands firm for truth, and sets a good example. We have an excellent, hard-won constitutional model to achieve this, which is why I defend the system and its offices. But so much depends on how our generation fulfills its duties – and there’s the rub! There has always been a shortfall, but sadly, we’ve now erred so far from the right way – even more than we realize. We think its smart to explain life as a (clearly, impossible) cosmic accident, choose whether a baby should live or not, and once born, what sex it should choose to be. How can the young identify with a ‘grown up’ nation that advocates such evils, increasingly now by decree? If we continue to trash the wisdom of generations concerning those things that would make for our happiness and peace, and fail to amend our ways, we should not find it strange if our precious young people follow suit (words, remember, are as swords).
March 6, 2019
Dear Mr. Redwood,
A cursory search on the internet reveals that the total police budget in 2018/19 is £12.3 billion and is subject to annual review.
It also states the UK foreign aid budget is about £14 billion pounds and it is the law that the UK must spend 0.7% of its GNI (Gross National Income) on it.
I do not wish to make light of a serious issue such as knife crime and offer this up only as a discussion point.
I would merely say that as the government has decided that much of its annual spend must be protected or ringfenced, there is little scope elsewhere to make the cuts that will have the desired effect of bringing the annual budget deficit under control.
March 6, 2019
Thank you for these figures. They make for emotive reading because it shows up the vanity project- loving Government and those MPs who actually voted for the OTT 0.7% allocation,that surpasses that of any other Nation. Recipient Despots of the world thank you.
I suggest that those persons in Parliament decided to think more of the citizens in the world outside than they did in the rights of the British people to be protected from the lawless now all too abundant in OUR own country.
What other lunatics out there would provide their Tax payers money to fund the Second Richest country on Earth or to any Country that has enough cash of their own to develop Nuclear weapons? All of these hand-outs overseas while the poor in our own country get poorer and our Public Services decline through lack of sufficient funding.
It is time for change and it should start ASAP but probably will not until Mrs May has moved from Downing Street. And damn those Conservative sycophants who kept Mrs May there when they had the chance to make Britain a bright democracy again.
March 6, 2019
They, the MP’s, make have created this problem. The current incumbent of Number 10 when she was Home Secretary just made things even worse.
And it is a sad day when those we elect and place our trust for our protection, care more for those that do not provide them with the positions they enjoy, than those that do.
Shameful !
March 6, 2019
In the first instance, I blame the ‘progressive’ liberal left for this problem and the breakdown of the family unit. Lack of discipline in the home creates feral kids who are influenced by others with bad values. Then I blame the likes of the Tory party for not having people with enough balls to sort it out! But to take that a stage further, they then do the very worst thing possible and cut the very vital services that held it all together.
To understand this problem, one has to come from the same background as those who commit the crimes and know their mind-set, and my neighbourhood was rough so I know what I’m talking about. I doubt whether Theresa May, David Gauke, or Rory Stewart have a real grasp on crime for they only ever seem to take notice of like-minded do-gooders who have wormed their way into society’s most influential positions to the extent that we now have a desperate situation that only remedial action will put right.
There needs to be a meaningful deterrent in institutions that are draconian, not the holiday camps we presently have where the criminals run the place through a lack of prion officers. As it stands, penalties are not properly implemented by the courts and criminals are walking away laughing, then putting selfies on YouTube. I could wipe the arrogant smiles off their faces, but there isn’t yet the political will to do it, so the wishy-washy contemptible pansy politicians have blood on their hands.
We also need to massively extend stop and search, even if it upsets the human rights screaming lefties. But to do that, there needs to be more police officers, and that costs money. Politicians need to realise that some things just cannot be cut to the bone because the consequences of austerity, particularly in this case, is going to be more expensive in the long run and highly damaging to the country’s peace and security.
A return to neighbourhood policing is a prerequisite. It is said by some to be an inefficient way to police the streets, but it is an excellent way to gather intelligence so the authorities know who the trouble makers are. And I feel we are not that far away from having a police service that is routinely armed, at the very least with Tasers.
Perhaps in the interim, the army has a role to play, but that would look like a total capitulation by the May government and an admission that she’s been wrong all along.
This is not the Britain we want, nor one we should get just because the politicians are not up to the task. The sooner we get rid of this parliament in favour of people who are properly in tune with those who put them there, the sooner we can be a nation at peace with itself.
Tad Davison
Cambridge
March 6, 2019
My late husband teamed up with a youth worker in East London to take young men on adventure breaks, climbing, camping etc. to help them develop confidence and responsibility. What was lacking in their lives, he discovered, was the example of positive male role models – in effect, good fathers.
There was a wildlife film shown on TV some years ago. A number of old, male elephants were culled by transporting them elsewhere. In a short time, the young bull elephants became aggressive and uncontrollable. Once more older elephants were returned, they were able to control the aggressive youngsters and order within the herd was restored. In our society, men have been marginalised, the role of fathers, and father-figures, undermined and masculinity declared ‘toxic’. Toxic masculinity – such as violent gang culture -is what you get when positive masculinity – responsibility, self-discipline, industry – are not part of young men’s lives. Restoring men’s positive influence is a long-term process and will need to involve challenging head-on the more lunatic feminist groups.
In the short term, Cressida Dick and the Mayor of London might transfer the 900 officers who are policing the internet for ‘hate speech’ to take on the more arduous, but worthwhile task of crime prevention by increasing their presence on the streets. I believe the Mayor is also using police funds on ‘diversity training’ which could be better spent on equipment and training for dealing with knife crime.
.
March 6, 2019
I have always thought that capital punishment should never have been banned. Murder and treason being the target. One of the greatest arguments for this, is that it would stop the murders committed by people who have been found guilty of murder, coming out of prison and doing it again. The last time I checked was a long time ago, but the figure was almost 400.
March 6, 2019
Many knife-carrying youngsters may well arm themselves as a precautionary measure, never expecting to even draw their weapon never mind wound another. They do not appreciate that a likely outcome of carrying a knife is that eventually it will be used: a point the authorities might usefully advertise.
You note “..the Prime Minister has suggested that there is no correlation between police numbers and knife crime”. I think she qualified that with the use of “direct” but in any case let us remind ourselves that this is the same person who tells us there is a correlation between Brexit and her Withdrawal Surrender. T. May is correlation challenged.
March 6, 2019
Indeed. Most of the problems of society can be traced back to the root cause of bad parenting (including indifference). Doing nothing can be a crime of omission.
We see its effects in the education system, where some children cause problems for the others who want to learn. Some even turn up to start primary school in nappies and unable to talk.
An underlying question is this: Do we really have a ‘right’ to have children?
On the grounds that there are no reasonable methods of preventing people from having children, what are the responsibilities of a parent and how would we enforce them?
It seems clear to me that the responsibilities are far greater than what some parents are actually doing so there must be sanctions when they fail to do what’s expected of them.
Waiting 5 years for them to turn up at a school gate in nappies say Goo Goo is too late. There was an article on early intervention on ConHome a while ago, with which I largely agreed. Yes, the State is not an ideal environment for kids, but it may be better in some cases than the parents – and I would contend, many more cases than we are currently seeing.
I have seen first-hand how social services operates and suffice it to say, they are not very capable people, who are working to a set of rules that are not fit for purpose.
March 6, 2019
“Move them out of the area” – thus simply transferring the problem, not addressing the initial causation.
Increasing police numbers and presence helps in the final stages, but does nothing to combat the denial in popular culture/media of the importance of familial and societal authority ideals and figures.
March 6, 2019
Good on you Alan Joyce,
The Foriegn Aid I think was another vanity item for the other so called leader.
Just what might that be spent on at home, before we give it away?
The one in charge now has been put there by The Establishment, Boris would have been there had not Cameron’s nasty, calls himself a Brexiteer, Gove trashed him, and we have those wire pullers to blame for the arch Remainer number one , you know the one that made a mess of immigration, the one that only smiles when she is in the EU.
Is anyone counting just how many times she has dropped everything here to rush off to her friends and masters
March 6, 2019
Knives are not the problem they are just a tool, when I was growing up every boy scout had a sheath knife and I do not know any that were charged with GBH or ABH. We were taught respect and tolerance for others but these days some people have more rights than others and are treated with kid gloves. Try teaching them a modern version of the good samaritan and expect them to put duty before rights.
March 6, 2019
In the 1980s we had a fully staffed, fully trained, properly paid police force. It hadn’t yet been subjected to reductions or to political correctness, and it was loyally backed up by the government, especially the PM and Home Secretary. But when it tried to police the no go areas it was met with riot and then blamed. That was the start of its downfall as first Scarman, then more pronouncedly Macpherson, and finally a certain 21st century Home Secretary, made it the scapegoat for the politicians’ carelessness over large scale immigration.
If we were ever to recover our police force wouldn’t history repeat itself, but on a more dangerous scale?
March 6, 2019
Your government is unbelievable. Now refusing to release details of tariff changes in the case of no deal until AFTER the vote. Such UTTER contempt for us!
March 6, 2019
Recently visited Jane Austen’s Chawton – like drifting out of the SOMETIMES nightmare modern world, like knife crimes, into a piece of traditional, English BLISS.
Jane represents everything best about England:
Traditional Christianity, family-minded, wit / humour, love of the arts and nature, work ethic, stoicism, honesty, modesty, and so on.
She was from both the gentry and the merchant class as well as connections with the armed forces. But she would have known well, though, how to get on with and respect other classes and backgrounds (remember how she challenges Emma for being a snob in ‘Emma’) and so on.
Politics can only do so much about things like knife crimes. What we really need to do is to restore the traditional British moral order and way of thinking of people such as Jane Austen.
March 6, 2019
When the police get knifed, will Corbyn blame it on police brutality?
Also on lack of diversity in police recruitment and, continued austerity, lack of table-tennis balls at Youth Clubs? Of course not.
March 6, 2019
Anybody for a bargain: a manor-type house, partly 18c, in Vic-Fezensac, SW France, well looked after these last 10 years, sold b. Brexit & unhelpful locals. Contact this blog, ref. NL.
March 6, 2019
The electorate is getting worried – regardless of the spurious statistical trickery preached to it.
The lack of funding to the police contrasts sharply with the Treasury’s keenness to dump billions into the EU for absolutely nothing in return. No doubt to fund social issues in the EU27 – or perhaps the caviar bill?
March 6, 2019
On far too many occasions one reads that the offender is from a single parent family. Where are the fathers ? A father figure is essential for young boys and their absence from family life is a key cause of wild behaviour.
March 6, 2019
If nothing is done positively to stop these now all-to-common murders, before too long I can see ALL frontline Police Officers being armed with guns to patrol the affected areas with orders of zero-tolerance to stop and search. I can see no other way to keep the citizens safe. what a sad day that will be. But safety first!
March 6, 2019
No more police thank you.
They will only become the enforcers of political correctness and speeding fines.
March 6, 2019
Well, twas said often enough in the past that this is where we would end up. We were warned.
March 6, 2019
I wonder why these knife murders by young people don’t affect other EU countries?
Have we lost our moral guidelines?
March 7, 2019
Sadly you are wrong.
There is a 29 page list of knife attacks in Europe recorded on Wikipedia.
Your attempt to link everything to Brexit is bizarre.
March 7, 2019
Dear Sir John Redwood,
A spate of fatal stabbings in London and in other big cities in England has knocked Brexit off the headlines. Jeremy Corbyn himself drew blood in the weekly clash with the Prime Minister today, accusing Theresa May of helping to bring about rising crime by cutting Police numbers. Last winter, it was the NHS in crisis with people turned away from hospitals so that priority could be given to the most seriously ill casualties. The Right Hon. Chris Grayling is in the dock for Incompetence. On the charges of neglecting Public Services and incompetence in running the country the Conservative Party in general, and Theresa May’s Government in particular is electorally vulnerable to Labour’s accusations.
You, along with as many of your Conservative MPs as you can get together- must now insist loudly and clearly that Theresa May has to resign. It’s not just her disastrous handling of Brexit- which has led to No Deal being effectively ruled out (because of her weakness in the face of intransigent Remainers) and ensuring we get a “Non Brexit” on the worst terms imaginable, it is the entire shambles of the Government. If Labour had a more popular leadership less tainted with nastiness the Conservatives would be 15 to 20% behind in the polls!
The only way we will keep Jeremy Corbyn out and ensure a Conservative majority at the next Election is if there is a concerted effort to oust Theresa May- quickly and fiercely. Then there needs to be a Brexit supporting Conservative take over as leader and Prime Minister who prorogues Parliament (thereby ensuring Brexit) and who has a major clear out of the Augean stables, replacing ministers with competent Conservatives who believe in Britain and in Brexit. Above all there needs to be a return to the First Duty of Government- Defence of the Realm and the Protection of Britain’s citizens. The ensuing General Election that should follow the Prorogation of Parliament should have the following in a Conservative Manifesto to eviscerate the Left:
1) Slash Foreign Aid, no more money to the EU and axe HS2.
2) Borrow £50 billion per annum for next five years to pay off the Government’s foreign Debts.
3) Borrow another £50 billion per annum for five years (International Credit Ratings Agencies still give Japan an A+ Credit Rating despite its Government Debt being 230% of GDP because all that debt is owed to Japanese citizens with government bonds!).
With the £100 billion per annum raised for the new Parliament pledge the following:
4) Double Police numbers, ending restrictions on stop and search and mandating that each Police Officer spend at least 50% of their working time on the beat.
5) Massive prison- building programme combined with legislation passed to direct judges to imprison violent offenders carrying weapons for ten years or more.
6) A Referendum on re-introducing the Death Penalty for murder, terrorism or child rape. This would be very popular with most of the Public.
7) Three million extra houses to be built over the next ten years to be sold cheaply to first-time buyers. One million new Apprenticeships to train up the new brickies, electricians, plumbers and joiners needed for this house- building effort. If the three million new homes are sold for £60,000 each this would raise £180 billion making this entire venture largely self- funding.
8) Abolish the 45% top tax rate and raise the Income Tax-free Allowance to £20,000 per annum income.
9) Raise Class 1 and Class 2 National Insurance exemption thresholds to £12,000 per annum.
10) Put an extra £20 billion into the NHS each year- with the stipulation it goes on nurses, doctors and surgeons.
These policies would not only be very popular with the Voters (the young would have a real reason to vote “Conservative” again), but they would encourage strong economic growth, make our cities and towns safe and economic growth would both take care of the deficit and ensure all these policies were funded from the resultant increase in revenues to the Exchequer.
If the Conservatives are to get a Brexit- supporting Majority after the next Election these are the sort of policies that will help ensure the party regains the electorate’s trust and enables the Party to eviscerate the pro-EU, high- taxing, press- regulating and (in the case of Labour anti-Semitic) Left.
March 7, 2019
What a joke this country has become all these crocodile tears about knife crime and this happens in the court system..
DM 5th March 2019.
A suspected drug dealer with a history of carrying a blade dodged jail yesterday.
(named person ed) was given a suspended sentence despite being caught with cocaine and a knife – his second weapons offence.
March 7, 2019
You’re right, it is a joke, and its the wholly inadequate liberal political class that have made it so.
Tad
March 7, 2019
Excluded kids (to save other kids btw) are taken out because they are already gangsta.
Good kids get punished with tuition fees and 6% interest and 60% tax if they earn a decent wage. Join the army, get crap food and slum housing.
Try taxing knife offenders. It seems to be your deterrent for daring to drive or strive. Tax is the prefered method for stopping us doing things.
Gutless Tories. Can’t control the lawless ? Control the lawful instead.
Dads doing their job ? The Left don’t like it and now commerce doesn’t (adverts). They are on a mission to write Dads out of the script so gangsta culture will grow and grow.
Reward wrong behaviour then wrong behaviour is what you get.
March 7, 2019
My Local Authority (Labour) had two police officers go all round my Council Estate door-to-door asking everyone if they wished signs puttng on lampposts saying door to door canvassers are not welcome. Mine was a traffic cop.
Nothing has changed in regard to visiting salespeople. The signs have gone up at tax-parer expense.
My Local Authority also use police officers for attending their political meetings of say a Councillor and four big mouths on each estate every month and a whole host of other collaring of police officers to further their political goals.
They have more than enough money to provide table tennis bats to help prevent youngsters from stabbing people to death when they feel peckish due to austerity.