MPS CHOOSE.. NOTHING
Four alternatives rejected on another night of division & despair
THERESA May’s Brexit shambles rumbled on last night as MPs again rejected all the alternatives.
Options, including a customs union and revoking Article 50, were blocked in chaotic scenes that highlighted the gridlock still gripping the Commons.
Tory MP Nick Boles, who tabled one of the motions, quit. Jeremy Corbyn said: “It’s disappointing that no solution has won a majority this evening
FURIOUS nurses and teachers have lashed Tory plans to shift responsibility for stopping the knife crime epidemic on to them.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid floated the idea of a “public health duty” to help identify warning signs that a youngster could be in danger of being sucked into knife crime.
He said signs include “presenting in A&E with a suspicious injury, worrying behaviour at school” – suggesting it would be up to professionals in these areas to take action.
It came as Theresa May hosted a knife crime summit at No10 with experts and community leaders including Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick and London Mayor Sadiq Khan.
Chris Keates of teachers’ union NASUWT said: “Threatening staff such as teachers, who already have a difficult and challenging job, that they will be held accountable for failing to spot any warning signs of violent crime is an unacceptable response.
“This complex issue won’t be resolved by putting additional pressures and responsibility on teachers.”
Mary Bousted, the National Education Union’s joint general-secretary, said: “Neither the blame for or the solution to violent crime can be laid at the door of schools or hospital staff.”
Dame Donna Kinnair, acting general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Nursing staff already have a key role in safeguarding patients. It’s unclear how putting a further obligation on [them] will prevent violent crime.”
Police struggling under funding cuts since the Tories came to power also hit out.
Det Chief Supt Nigel Wenham of Cheshire Police said: “This suggestion is utter nonsense and fails to acknowledge the catastrophic mistakes of the last nine years.”
The Prime Minister said at the summit: “It is a challenge that collectively affects us as a society, and that as a society we need to deal with.”
A consultation will decide how much frontline professionals should be held to account for failing to stop kids getting involved.
The Home Office said six firms will get a slice of £460,000 to develop radar, and electromagnetic and acoustic sensors, to detect knives.
The Mirror’s End the Knife Epidemic campaign calls for more police with greater powers; reversing youth service cuts; boosting awareness; tackling problems behind the crime; and a knife crime tsar.
THERESA May, first as Home Secretary and now Prime Minister, should accept her share of responsibility for the surge in knife crime.
Conservative governments have squeezed pay and pensions of teachers and nurses for nine years. Now, suddenly, they have been put on the frontline in the battle against crime. It is nothing more than rank hypocrisy The facts speak for themselves when May has issued marching orders to 21,000 police officers, punching holes in the thin blue line.
Everybody has a role to play in ending this crisis, including educators and health workers.
It is about time the PM accepts we need more, not fewer, police on our streets with the resources to do their jobs properly.