Boris’s chance to stop this bloodbath

BACK in the 1990s Tony Blair famously vowed to protect the vulnerable by being “tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime”.

For all his foreign policy failings Mr Blair was an intuitive politician who understood that soft justice is not only unpopular, it also leads to more crime.

His words now seem like a distant memory, especially as we have seen Britain’s streets descend into chaos, being drenched with the blood of our young people who have been the victims of knife and acid attacks.

The rolling back of stop-and-search powers due to political correctness has cost many young people their lives.

And to make matters worse, the response from the previous justice secretary, David Gauke, was not to get tough but to give criminals a free pass. Disappointingly, this was a Conservative minister who was suggesting that certain types of prison sentences be abolished and fewer people be locked up for their crimes.

These policies have rightly been condemned as a wishy-washy, Left-wing liberal approach and, thankfully, Boris Johnson’s government appears to be preparing to put an end to this aberration in public policy.

The new tough measures controlling the sale of knives and acid, along with curfew orders for youngsters and expansion of prison capacity, are to be welcomed.

It is good to see that under Mr Johnson’s leadership the Conservatives are reclaiming their title as the party of law and order.