Knife carriers have everything to lose

Hard to believe children as young as 11 years old carry knives for protection. At least the Government is trying to make the streets safer so youngsters don't feel they need knives - Tackling Knives action programme

Can't help thinking it's a drop in the ocean at the moment though. Here we are headed for recession - even more kids are likely to feel separate from society as they are unable to get jobs and aspire to something honest and worthwhile.

Somehow the message young people need to absorb and respond to is that a knife, and committing criminal acts with knives, isn't going anywhere - except a downward spiral of failure. Once young people cotton on to the fact that knife carriers are losers, maybe then campaigns to combat knife crime can progress. We live in hope, and determination - always.

Having said that, then you see people in the public eye (like George Osborne, the Tory shadow chancellor) sullying public life attending shady hospitality meetings that allude to his political party perhaps receiving illegal payments. If that's the type of person and life that young people are supposed to respect or look up to, well - it's perhaps no wonder they vote with knives. That's no excuse - but who wants to be like George Osborne, or a money-grabbing political party?