Javid’s passing the buck in his race to be PM
IT is the week, remember, when Tory backbencher Sir Christopher Chope suggested young people should “get fitter” to protect themselves from knife crime.
(I’ve deliberately left out the word remarkably, we shouldn’t be surprised by out-of-touch
MPs any more).
The week in which a knife amnesty bin set up by Avon and Somerset police was ransacked with all the blades stolen.
The week which saw a resident in Walthamstow, East London, so fed up at the lack of police in his area, that he stood outside what used to be his local cop shop and took a photo in front of it, smoking something he shouldn’t have.
“Police are useless,” said Courtney Barratt. “They wait for a crime to happen and solve it later.”
Don’t forget too, the high street in Swansea where businesses are leaving because the pavements are unsafe after 5pm.
“People are shutting up shop and no one cares,” said one entrepreneur. “The criminals have won.”
Enter Sajid Javid to launch his Tory leadership bid/war on knife crime by targeting – instead of supporting – teachers, NHS and youth workers, warning they could be punished if they fail to spot potential offenders.
Staff in those jobs already work hard to prevent the lives of young people taking a wrong turn.
As Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the National Education Union, pointed out, schools already have “strong safeguarding practices in place. The problem is what happens after issues of concern have been identified”.
As usual, the plans are the Government’s way of passing the buck over their underinvestment.
A diversion from the reality that young people from families hit by cuts have been left with no prospects, incubating in a breeding ground for discontentment. The victims are the local communities, forced to pay the financial and emotional cost.
Perhaps Javid would be better off looking closer to home, reviewing the closures of more than 600 police stations in the last eight years. That might be a start if he is really serious. But we all know it is just about getting into No 10.
He’s warned teachers could be responsible if they fail to spot offenders