LILY ALLEN is ready to lead the fight against knife crime, just as new government figures revealed there were 7,500 blade-related crime incidents last year.
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London Mayor Boris Johnson met the singer yesterday after Allen came up with the idea of curbing knife-crime by staging a pop-concert.
“I am delighted Lily will be using her profile and fan base to spread the message,” said Johnson.
The Mayor’s own pet project to combat the blade menace is to teach kids ancient Greek and Latin.
The government’s figures showed that there were nearly 7,500 knife-crime incidents in London last year, but this was the first year they were recorded separately from other violent incidents, so it is difficult to judge the trend.
That didn’t stop Prime Minister Gordon Brown talking tough. “We are clearing the decks, cutting the red tape, cutting back on bureaucracy,” said Brown.
Not sure if using the word “cut” is appropriate, Gordon, but anyway, in place of all that pesky red tape, the PM plans to introduce, “more stop and search, more visible policing, more metal detectors, tougher sentences and a determination to say to people: if you are caught with a knife, you will be prosecuted, if you have a knife you will be punished.”
On a slightly more optimistic note: although London posted the most knife-crime incidents, once you account for population, it is broadly in line with other big urban zones like Greater Manchester and the West Midlands.
In all three areas, there was approximately one knife-crime incident for every 1,000 residents. So at least if we’re all going down in a flurry of blade wars, we’re all going down together.
