Not just another knife crime!

The brutal and savage murder of two French citizens in New Cross, South East London sends a shiver down my spine. Beyond the savagery of the level of violence used, I always feel that crimes against foreign nationals add an extra degree of embarrassment for our country and how its image overseas is once again dragged into the gutter.

Of course there are always criminals in every country who prey on the vulnerable, tourists included. But the fact that these two young men with such bright futures chose to come here to study and have ended their lives in such an appalling way is incredibly sad. Now it also emerges that another teenager was stabbed to death in nearby Thornton Heath yesterday. That's the 18th teenager murdered in London this year. It's simply not good enough for the Home Office to say how difficult it is to crack down on knife crime. We need to very quickly get to grips with this epidemic of knife culture. That means extensive new powers for the Police to search for them and we need some extremely stiff penalties for offenders who resort to carrying and using such weapons.

In the meantime, let’s all hope arrests are imminent in both cases.


nick