Sickening tide
AFTER Rhys Jones was shot dead in Liverpool exactly 15 years ago The Sun made a heartfelt plea: “Let this change us as a nation.”
It sickens us that it did not.
We had clung to the hope that the 11-year-old’s senseless murder would at least force politicians, police and the judiciary to examine how crime had engulfed our society and fix it.
It shames them all that the problem is now far worse.
The murder of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel — shot in the supposed safety of her Liverpool home by a random masked gunman, then left to die — is every bit as heartbreaking.
The night before, not far away, 28-year-old Ashley Dale was gunned down at her semi. Last week Sam Rimmer, 22, was shot dead in Toxteth.
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After all these years, gang violence in the city still rages out of control.
Yet again it is crucial that even those normally disinclined to co-operate with police do so to identify Olivia’s killer.
But Liverpool is not an isolated case.
Knife crime is rife in London. Its 67 murders this year include an 87-year-old fundraiser on a mobility scooter.
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The Met Police is broken. Climate-obsessed Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan blames the heat. What hope does the capital have under such a fool?
Other cities are increasingly lawless. Six failing forces are in special measures.
Yes, police numbers were slashed too savagely after 2010 as crime appeared to fall. But that’s not the whole story.
What cops we do have gave up on real crime long ago. Instead they obsess over “non-crime hate incidents” by Twitter louts.
And social media virtue-signalling, like officers dancing the Macarena at Pride events, is far more fun than the hard graft of protecting the public.
Meanwhile our justice system is paralysed by Covid backlogs and a strike. And judges remain too lenient.
Will Olivia’s terrible murder change anything? We doubt it. But it should.
Whoever is appointed Home Secretary come September 6 must know this:
Turning back this horrific tide of crime is the most vital and urgent work they will ever undertake.
Stop the cheats
In just one day Britain has ushered in enough illegal migrants from their cross-Channel boats to populate a village[/caption]
IN just one day Britain has ushered in enough illegal migrants from their cross-Channel boats to populate a village.
By the year’s end they will fill a town.
All must be clothed, fed and housed by taxpayers facing £6,500 energy bills.
These are not legitimate refugees like those we pluck from war zones.
Four in ten hail from peaceful Albania. All were safe in France but want a new life. Criminals help them cheat the system.
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The French won’t lift a finger. Instead our new PM, inheriting a majority approaching 80, must enforce the Rwanda deterrent scheme by overriding the ECHR with a new Bill of Rights.
Sort this in September — or reap the consequences with voters.
