EVER-rising march of violent death by knives + guns across the UK

I WONDER how long the British public will tolerate ineffective work to prevent 1000s and 1000s of people trying to kill each other in the nation's towns and cities.

Numbers of knife crimes have reached 40,000 - although if you read back through my various knife crime statistics analyses, you'll be left thinking that, in truth, no-one knows how many people are stabbing each other.

Why not save effort, time + money and just trot out the word 'thousands' every quarter?

Back in 2013, public data claimed about 22,000 blade attacks that year. Before that I reported national media stories quoted knife crime stats at 30,000. It seemed knife crime was dropping earlier this decade.

Now it's soaring (again) to record levels, a most tragic state of affairs of the highest order.

It's got to a point where it's not possible to understand if anything has helped or hindered the tackling of knife crime.

It does seem a baffling smoke screen is thrown up by public authorities (avoiding accountability).

Can you remember in recent times anything specific that's worked to reduce knife crime? Have any public group or senior figures cared enough to deploy resources of any substance?

Under-funded voluntary education programmes, youth work, protests and awareness work by many grieving families, friends, campaigners. Much anti-violence work doesn't seem to be making the progress longed for.

Roots of the malaise, this scourge, run deeper it seems than crying, shouting or speaking to others about 'a problem' to solve.

Whatever, it is reasonable to observe that the public is becoming increasingly fearful of walking about (some) UK streets. At the same time, police numbers are at a record low. The two must be connected.