The human compassion of the Mizen family is the most potent weapon against knife crime.

2.42.37pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 14th Jul 2008

The courage of the Mizen family has been the most impressive example of human reason and the ability to be better and strive to improve society that I have come across in a long time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7455346.stm

I don't know what causes knife crime, I don't know why teenagers in London engage in awful violent assaults, I don't know why England has all kind of restrictions that don't stop this but the crime is not prevalent in Spain which does not. I know that in the 1960s they didn't know either. I believe the key must be that those who carry knives realise there are consequences - consequences for the lives they destroy and consequences for their families and themselves. It must be made completely unacceptable, completely stupid, to carry a knife, and then there must be a high chance of imprisonment for the serious gang members who still do it.

In my late teens I carried a large pen knife (that was not illegal prior to 1988 but was afterwards) because I thought it was a useful thing to do (I read lots of boys adventure stories after all), an exciting thing to do, possibly cool. It wasn't. A helpful police officer in Bristol warned me to lose the knife - I got rid of it and never carried one again, that warning keeping me out of the chance of future trouble without any criminal record.