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EXPRESS COMMENT

KNIFE-CRIME FAILINGS SHOW LABOUR IS LOST FOR IDEAS

Tuesday July 8,2008

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When senior ministers start to list all the reasons why they cannot take action to tackle the main problems afflicting society, it invariably means the administration in which they serve has run out of steam.

Jack Straw’s insistence that he is powerless to shelve new sentencing guidelines – which suggest that a fine is sufficient punishment for people caught with knives – is a case in point.

What the Justice Secretary really means is that he does not have the necessary political courage or dynamism to tackle the vested interests that stand between knife‑wielding thugs and a prison sentence.

When one of those vested interests is the Prime Minister himself, that is hardly surprising. Gordon Brown was notoriously reluctant to release funds for new prison places when he was running the Treasury.

The lack of adequate prison capacity is why the Government introduced an early release scheme to throw dangerous criminals back out on the streets.

It is also why ministers will not press judges and magistrates to impose custodial sentences on those convicted of possessing knives.

There are many ways in which ministers could overrule the Sentencing Guidelines Council. They could use their influence to persuade it that the upsurge in knife crime merits tougher sentencing, they could rush through laws to make imprisonment mandatory for blade‑carriers, or they could even abolish the Council and replace it with a body more in tune with public opinion.

But they will do none of these things because the Government is led by a man who does not view the punishment of criminality as important.

Yesterday the Conservative leader David Cameron did promise action to jail the knife-carriers. Some voters may view his pledge with a degree of scepticism but when it comes to law and order, the Tories are once more the only show in town.