|
London: Just ten London MPs attended a Commons debate on knife crime - despite public concern over a spate of teenage killings.
The vast majority of the capital's 74 elected MPs said they had made other plans or had meetings to attend, though many were reluctant to go into details.
One key demand in a campaign to protect teenagers from knives - for fewer cautions and more prosecutions when youngsters are caught with knives - has been embraced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The rest of the 646 MPs from around the country were even thinner on the ground on a sunny Thursday afternoon when there were no compulsory votes. At times in the debate, the number of MPs on all sides of the chamber fell to just twelve.
One London MP with a good excuse for not attending was Jon Cruddas, who was taking part in an Operation Blunt exercise with police in his Dagenham constituency, which involved talking to youngsters about the dangers of knives and asking them about their experiences.
Hornchurch MP James Brokenshire, a shadow home affairs minister, said: "The scourge of knife crime has touched the lives of too many people across the country."
Brent South's Dawn Butler said there were more than 200 knife crimes a year in Brent: "What's different is that the victims are becoming younger and younger."
She said "postcode wars" and "road codes" left youngsters too frightened to enter neighbouring areas.
Home Office minister Vernon Coaker, whose father was a London police officer, admitted that Britain's courts were failing to mete out the maximum sentences for knife crimes.
He said: "It has to be said that the courts do need to look at the availability of the four-year sentence to them when they make their sentencing decision."
|
