Avoiding The Difficult Questions...

So, as noted by Dumb Jon, as the BBC and the left join forces in preparing the ground for soft punishments for those involved in the Massacre of Victoria, other pundits are desperately searching for answers to why this happened at all.

No, not the real answers - that would be crazy, right? They are looking for 'answers' that deflect, that obfuscate, that point people away from drawing inconvenient conclusions.

Mary Dejevsky in the 'Indy' thinks she's found one: it's Tube stations that caused it!

No, really:

Sofyen Belamouadden, it is reported, had been hunted down, then knifed to death – not in the crime-ridden slums of South-East Washington or any benighted banlieue of Paris – but in the ticket hall (District and Circle lines) of Victoria Underground station in central London.

Almost as shocking as what happened, though, is that anyone who passes regularly through this ticket hall, as I do, would not have been entirely surprised.

Why so?

This focal point of the capital's transport system may be overdue for a makeover, but it also seethes with barely suppressed lawlessness. Nor, in this, is it unique. If you have the time to notice, many other London stations, away from the glitzy shops and actual trains, have a similar, slightly menacing air.

Umm, no. Actually, they don't.

Oh, they might be dirty, crowded, noisy, and with the odd beggar or tramp, a little bit annoying, but on those occasions when they are not home to a pack of savages intent on hunting down their human prey, they are perfectly safe to use.

City stations attract all sorts: not just travellers, but people who prey on them. Indeed, stations offer a whole chain of predation. Regular passengers, though, know to keep their eyes and ears about them; they treat stations with the wariness they deserve.

Wariness about having your pocket picked or your shoes vomited on, yes. But wary about the constant threat of gang warfare? I don't really think so. That's hardly an every day occurrence, and nor is it a phenomenon caused by those stations...

The savage children in William Golding's novel are restrained with the reappearance of (a few) responsible adults. Where those responsible adults were as youths routinely ran amok in the weeks before the Victoria station murder is a question that needs to be asked just as urgently as who killed Sofyen Belamouadden – and the two are surely not unrelated.

There's something else that's not unrelated, Mary.

But let's not go there, eh? I mean, if you did, someone might point out you once pooh-poohed such fears, mightn't they?

They might also point out how you routinely make excuses for the worst crimes, and how such attitudes have lead to the situation where no-one is ever punished for their actions.