Public security

PETER HITCHENS: The real cause of knife crime? It's hidden in a fog of cannabis smoke

If there were two million of them it wouldn’t make any difference because, like the schools, they are doing the wrong thing, and if you give them more money they will just do the wrong thing more expensively.

Here is the problem. We are told that stabbings are at their worst since 1945. This is itself untrue. The year 1945 is chosen because that was when figures on stabbings began to be collected. In reality, they are the worst figures since this became a civilised country under the Victorians, really the worst figures since an unpoliced London was roamed by armed footpads, and highwaymen haunted the country roads.

In a way, they are even worse than then. This is, by comparison with those times, a rich and settled society. But in an important way, we are worse. We have drugs. These drugs do not just intoxicate, as alcohol does. They make their users mentally ill, irrational, uninhibited, careless of the consequences of what they do.