Crime

While there is a case for allowing some prisoners to stay home overnight as they approach release, in order to re-establish community links and aid their transition back into society, overnight release should never be used simply because of a lack of prison cells. The trouble is that Labour's incompetent management has yet again brought prisons back to bursting point.

Another example of Broken Britain.

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I welcome the increased sentence. I spent 17 years in the police and have seen the devastating effects of knife crime at first hand.

But without cutting red-tape to get more police on the street to catch the perpetrators, or providing the prison places for those convicted, this will prove yet another empty gesture.

Figures that have just been published show that someone is attacked by a complete stranger every 30 seconds! How can this be happening? When Labour came to power, only a third of violent crimes were carried out by an attacker the victim did not know. But that has now jumped to half as random violence has become commonplace.

It is clear that we have a growing problem of violence and disorder on our streets. Ministers seem to be in a state of denial about it. Britain's binge-drinking culture and the changes to our licensing rules are a big reason for the problem. It's time we gave local communities much greater powers to restrict the number of licensed premises and reduce late-night opening.

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