CREME NEST EGG
ANN Daw, 18, won a £ 10,000 prize after she found a gold label inside her white chocolate Creme Egg in Devizes, Wilts. SIX days ago the number of young people who had been killed on the streets of Britain this year stood at 25.
Prime Minister Theresa May was consumed with Brexit, while London Mayor Sadiq Khan was preparing to jet off on holiday.
Twenty- four hours everything changed.
Jodie Chesney and Yousef Makki , two 17- year- old A-Level students were brutally stabbed to death.
Within 48 hours Home Secretary Saj id Javid demanded extra money for more police on the streets and convened yesterday’s knife crime summit, attended by the seven forces most affected by violent crime.
The issue exploded into public consciousness in a way I haven’t seen before. There have been 285 knife killings in the past year, the highest figure since the Second World War, and the people running the country have finally been forced to act. But why now?
It’s obvious. The victims were middle class. Jodie was a Girl Scout who had been to Downing Street. Yousef was a pupil at the prestigious Manchester Grammar School. Conservative politicians realised that the seemingly random nature of these attacks meant their children or, more importantly, the children of their voters, could be next.
It’s tragic that it took THESE deaths to spur the Government into action.
There is a perception that victims of
»It’s a bit
early for 2020 Oscars predictions, but surely R Kelly has to be a contender in the Best Actor category following his tearful US TV interview? I found it so bizarre that he can give his socalled version of events while on bail on 10 sex assault charges. Surely the time for him to spill is in front of the jury? later, knife crime are young black men in gangs, and while many are, they are still young British men and they deserve and need our help.
Every day, on the school run, I walk past makeshift shrines to stab victims Lejean Richards and Malachi Brooks, both yards away from our old police station which has been turned into luxury flats. I know people who are friends with the victims’ families and their tears and their grief are every bit as real as those of the families of Jodie and Yousef.
So now politicians have been forced to accept this is a national crisis, what next?
We absolutely need more police on the streets, to use stop-andsearch respectfully and within the law, and I would back a temporary night-time curfew for teenagers. It sounds drastic, but we need drastic measures.
However, as MP David Lammy says, arresting kids alone won’t stop this epidemic. We need a programme of de-radicalisation. As people like the rapper Akala and Good Morning Britain presenter Alex Beresford have said this week, young people are products of their environment and things won’t change until we change the environments they’re growing up in. The Mirror’s knifecampaign, calling for a reversal of cuts to youth services, more awareness of knife crime in schools and improving pupil reform units is a great place to start.
Without all this, who knows, it could be your child next. VICTIM Lejean Richards
Why are they acting now? Because these victims were middle class
I’m all for women embracing their inner cougars younger men, but and dating there was something nauseating Beckinsale snogging about Kate the face off new boyfriend at an ice hockey Pete Davidson game this weekend.
Kate, 45, could surely have her pick of Hollywood’s bachelors, but instead she picks a scruffy 25-year-old looks like he hasn’t who showered in months. I give it three weeks.