SADIQ KHAN - ANOTHER POINTLESS POLITICIAN

This morning, I heard the Labour Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, telling us about how he was going to tackled the appalling level of violence on the streets of his city. Yes, well, yawn.

Khan was at pains to tell us that the increase in 'knife crime' was not really his fault, it had all started under the regime of his predecessor, the Conservative Boris Johnson. So that's all right, it can all be blamed on 'the other lot', even though Johnson left office almost 3 years ago and the incidence of 'knife crime' has increased exponentially since then.

Khan then went on to explain his strategy for resolving the problem. He's set up planning groups to discuss how to sort things out and to produce plans. There are discussions with local communities and he's looking for ways to engage with the young people most at risk of being involved in 'knife crime'. Of course, his biggest problem is a lack of resources, but that's all down to, you've guessed it, those nasty Tories in Westminster.

It occurs to me that Khan has his priorities wrong. Instead of wasting heaven knows how much money on investigating, planning, discussing and doing all of the other namby-pamby, touchy-feely things, why doesn't he spend this scarce resource on actually doing something useful ? The young thugs on the streets need to be caught, so how about putting a few more police or council wardens, on patrol ? How about making the detection and prevention of 'knife crime' a priority, over and above the ticketing of motorists and litterlouts, the prosecution of so-called 'hate speech', and other petty social misdemeanours ? 

Sadly, Mr Khan isn't up to it. He's just another pointless and useless politician, far more concerned about not offending some minority interest group than he is about actually getting the job done. The people involved in 'knife crime' are vicious thugs and yet we hear more about those who supposedly carry knives 'for their own protection' than we do about anything else. There can be no reason for anyone to be walking our streets carrying a knife unless it's a domestic knife, just bought and in a wrapper. Yes, some workmen may need knives but they can surely be easily distinguished from violent, ignorant yobs. 

It may sound extreme and probably is, but extensive 'stop and search' and house searches on suspicion are surely one answer. Another is a mandatory 5 years in prison (before any chance of parole) for anyone found carrying any type of knife without proper cause. Mr Khan can investigate, discuss and plan until the cows come home, he'll have no effect on the level of 'knife crime' until he gets properly tough on the perpetrators.