Get tough on crime

The Government needs to get a grip on violent crime, and urgently. The latest figures, published yesterday, confirm a seemingly inexorable rise in stabbings, shootings and assaults, especially in London but also in other cities.

Yet this week, there has been one major law and order announcement from the Government – that misogyny and ageism should be added to the list of so-called hate crimes that the police need to investigate. Recently, the South Yorkshire constabulary urged local people to report “non-crime hate incidents, which can include things like offensive or insulting comments, online, in person or in writing”.

The country is beginning to despair of the skewed priorities of both the Government and the police. The latest crime figures show nearly 15,000 knife offences in London during the past year, a 15 per cent rise on the previous year and the highest figure since comparable records began to be collected in 2009.

This included 91 knife killings, 170 rapes or sexual assaults carried out with a blade and 8,300 knife-point robberies. Nationally there were significant increases in homicide, other “high harm” violence, robbery, burglary and vehicle crime. British cities have a reputation for being safer than many counterparts overseas, but this will change unless the police regain control of the areas where gang crime is flourishing.

Sadiq Khan, the ineffectual Mayor of London, and the Home Office want violent crime treated as a public health issue rather than a law and order one. The public want more police on the streets using their full range of powers to stop and search suspects. It’s time for the former to heed the latter.