Monday 26 May 2008

Knife Crime - It's A Problem We Can't Solve With Platitudes

The 'Telegraph' has a neat summation of the current toll of young lives lost to crime in London. The list includes death by gunshot, beating and most of all stabbing, which is the most prevalent cause of death.

It's a grisly toll, and makes you wish the UK had a Children's Commisioner, or something, who could...oh, wait! It seems we do. What's his take on this epidemic of violence then...?:
New laws to crack down on knife crime could cause increased hostility among young people, the Children's Commissioner for England has said.

Sir Al Aynsley-Green called for more research into the effects of increased police powers.
Quite right, Sir Al. One can never have too much 'research'. Who would do it though? Perhaps a quango like the Children's Commission...?
Sir Al said young people should be seen as part of the solution rather than part of the problem.
Except, they are the problem. None of these teenagers were stabbed by 40 year olds, they were stabbed by other teenagers. Your clientele are reducing their own numbers, shouldn't that be more of a concern than whether they feel 'alienated'?

A father who lost his son to knife crime has the right idea:
Gerald Pontet, the guardian of 14-year-old Nuttawut Meechao, who was stabbed to death near Finchampstead in Berkshire in 2005 by another teenager, told the BBC News website he was "appalled" at Sir Al's comments.

"Sir Al's concern is for the effect on youngsters and their relationship with authority," Mr Pontet said. "As parents our concern is what our, or other youngsters are up to - are they safe to be out and about and are they going to come home safely?

"To say that our children 'should be part of the solution not part of the problem', Sir Al is using meaningless doublespeak, and if this is his position, he has no real contribution to make."
Perhaps the first thing to be done on the road towards an end to this is to abolish the Children's Commission and put the money to better use.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

That'd be for tax cuts then for rich people like you.

TT

Anonymous said...

I'm rich...?

Woohoo!!!

Bill Haydon said...

This guy is a ****. He is just a NuLab placeperson with nothing original or genuinely compassionate to say; he is one of that breed who think compassion means not taking on crime.

I think he is also probably one of those Neo-Marxists who seek some kind of revolution via chaos. And likes to promote it.


Incidentally, if tax cuts are on offer, can I have some too? I own nothing but a laptop and a battered old Ford Fiesta but I'd love less money going out of my amusingly titled "wage packet".

Anonymous said...

"I'd love less money going out of my amusingly titled "wage packet"."

Yup. High taxes can only be sustained if the populace can be convinced they are getting a return on the money - decent services, investment in the future, etc.

I think a lot of people are now waking up to Labour's 10 year spending spree and asking just what, other than increasing numbers of government departments and failed initiatives, their money has paid for?

Anonymous said...

From a 30 second google all concerning Sir Al tells us that he is a clinician, a medical doctor specialising in children and is/was a big wheel at Great Ormond Street. Before his appointment he was an assiduous sitter on committees and an adviser to the DoH. Apparently, he has "no political affiliation". However, I'm willing to wager that he's never voted Conservative.

Bill Haydon said...

To be honest, Umbongo, I see the bookies paying out early on that one, so I'll not place a bet if it's ok with you.

So...why is he afraid of teenagers being searched for knives? Is it ideological, or is it fear?

JuliaM: we don't pay taxes to get anything in return, we pay them out of some mystical sense of ethics, or morality, or whatever. To expect any of our money back is crazy. Hence a government cutting back on tax rises can be described on the state broadcaster as indulging in a "giveaway" -or similar phrases which make the point that the money ain't ours.

Gripes Tripes and Hypes said...

But still our pain continues. My partner cannot face life without her dear T.wood and I cannot bear to see her pain. I read these pages over and over hoping for a fighter who will do something but that never happens. And so all the fuss once again recedes into the greyness that is past memory and the arguements become tiresome and nobody really cares anymore. Lip services works. It shuts people up except us. We then become the problem because our memories are alive and hurt. Sumintra eats, drinks, sleeps and weeps. She lives but has no life. That was taken away by Thomas Palmer on 11 September 2005.