Thedebatething : Your Views about the News

Eight people this morning are wishing they had stayed home and watched TV last night, in the early hours of this morning a knife weilding youth went on the rampage and stabbed eight people, five of them including three women are in hospital classed as stable. This guy didn't even know these people, they were just there.

So where did this happen? London? Liverpool? America?

No, this incident happened in my little town, not a big city with lots of nightclubs and occurences that are sadly, far too regular. This incident involved people I knew personally, people that my son knows, we could quite easily have been taking flowers to funerals instead of taking flowers to the hospital.

Knife crime is/has become so serious that even little backwaters like us are feeling the violence that emanates from the lack of sufficient detterants and laws to deal with the issue at hand. Youths carry knives and openly flaunt them, or they carry them hidden on thier person 'just in case' they should need them. The fact that the ones that carry them just in case are the ones that usually end up hurting someone does not seem to enter anyones head, well at least not the heads of the youths involved.

The one last night has been detained under the mental health act, does this make what he did any less serious? Does the fact that he has 'problems' mean that he is to be absolved rom all blame for what he did to those people, well probably, in the same way that drug users get away with commiting crimes, because they are classes as 'not responsible' for their actions. So if the people perpetraing the crime are not responsible then it is down to the Government to take that responsibility and to make it a priority to actually do something about knife crime instead of just discussing 'possible' ways of dealing with it, to make the laws that they are supposedly introducing count for something instead of using the same old softly softly approach that they normally use.

Perhaps then people wont have to worry about whether they should go for a night out or stay in, parents would not have to worry so much about their children going for a night out with their mates, and we aowuldn't be mourning so many wastes of so many young lives.

As America rocks to yet another senseless shooting in yet another public place we have to ask ourselves is this the England of Tomorrow?

A gunman enters a dance class in a keep fit Gymn, turns out the lights and opens fire, finally turning the gun upon himself, this is a class full of women and only women, at the time of writing this the numbers are still unknown, some say five dead some say four, some say there were a 100 in the class some sat only 30, to be honest does it matter how many there were?

What matters is that once again someone has taken it upon themselves to play God and to take away the lives of others Mothers/Daughters/wives/sisters, what matters is that families in Bridgesville USA are this morning mourning the senseless taking of their loved ones lives, in a state of shock and asking the age old question 'Why?'

In July a 3 year old boy shot his brother after finding a gun under a bed, luckily the young boy survived, unlike the 5 year old that shot and killed himself in his fathers car in Las vegas after finding a gun in the glove compartment, also in June an 11 year old boy shot and killed his nine year old brother in a row over a video game, the police have deemd this as an accident as the boys were struggling over the gun and it 'went off' they have deemed that the shotgun was too heavy and long for the boy to lift and shoot.

The point of the matter is that the guns were there for the children in those incidents to find and use. And yes this is America where licenced guns are allowed in the family home. But how long is it going to be before this kind of thing is the daily report here? Already we have had reports of Children being shot some fatally, some have survived.

Guns are available in this country, criminals have been using them since time immimorial, look at the Krays for just one example and that was as far back as the sixties. Our law enforcement is unarmed for the most part with only specialist units having weapons, but how long before the police walking our streets will be wearing sidearms? The criminals use firearms more and more, robberies being reported are often reported as the criminals having shotguns, there will come a time when the gun laws will change will we become America?

Let us hope that this does not happen, let us hope instead that the Authorities in this country clamp down on the import and sale of illegal weapons, let us hope that the sale of Guns and the criteria for selling and buying them is tightened to a degree that makes it hard for them to be bought and sold.

If this does not happen then the reports from above will become the reports that we see on our breakfast news, and it will be our children and our sisters and mothers and daughters that we are mourning.

The expenses debate, we have had it spooned to us in every newspaper and TV programme that is concerned with current events, MP's have been named and shamed and some have even been made to step down.

The latest item to come from this is the announcement that all expenses will now be governed by an independant body, and if refused there is no right to appeal.

Now I dont know about you, but I feel that the fact that we, the tax payer has to pay for that very expensive second home, and it's upkeep a tad sickening, especially when a lot of us struggle to maintain the ordinary mortgage/rent, so they need somewhere to stay through the week when they are in London, would it not be more economical to the tax payer to have a block of apartments for this? MP's could then rent their second homes at a budget rent, saving the tax payer thousands, Yes the MP's may object to not having the luxury of a five bedroom house with acres of garden space, but after all this is only their second residence and it should be treated as an interim not a permanent place.

What I find even more annoying, and that is putting it mildly is the fact that MP's have their council tax paid! Now we all have to pay this outdated government taxation, and for many of us it is a struggle, for even more it has resulted in court hearings because you dared to miss a payment, to learn that those that can afford to pay it are actually having it paid by us, as well as us having to pay our own, makes you want to tell the Prime minister and his lackies just where they can put it!

Gordon Brown needs to do more than just overhaul the way that expenses are claimed, he needs to take a serious look at what is being claimed, why should we have to pay for Council tax and mortgage interest on second properties because we work hard to try and maintain what little we ourselves have? Do you want to vote someone into Government knowing that you are going to pay to keep them in luxury for the next five years, while you struggle to maintain a decent standard of living?

Will it be surprising if even less people turn out to vote now than did before?

Whats your opinion on what the MP's should and should not be allowed?

On Thursday the 11th December four young men stole a car in Daisy Hill Bradford West Yorkshire, after driving through the streets at high speed for a few hours they proceeded to Killinghall Road where, again at high speed, they lost control of the car and drove into the side of a fish and chip shop.

All four died in the resulting explosion and fire despite police efforts to rescue them, they had driven into the side of the building where the gas main was situated.

The police were in tears after pulling one young man from the wreck and failing to revive him, witmnesses say that despite the heat and the flames they pulled fire extinguishers from their cars and attempted to get to the ones remaining in the car.

Some of them had witnessed the crash and the explosion as they had been attempting to pursue the car and its occupants.

The police have been cleared of any blame as the police video footage shows that they were at a 'safe' distance from the vehicle as they were in a built up area and reports of a rolling road block being used to try and stop the car has been denied.

I am not here to blame the police for their actions, a car was stolen and had been driven at high speed through estates and was potentialy a danger to all the people that lived there, they had a job to do and were trying to do it without endangering lives anymore than the car was already doing.

However, there are four sets of parents out there today that are going to be looking to lay the blame at someones door, two weeks before Christmas they have lost their sons, they will be grieving and in shock, and they will be asking the eternal question, Why?

We live in a blame society, someone has to be responsible for all the things that happen, no one is satisfied with the explanation that a sequence of events unfolded and resulted in a tragedy.

So who is to blame?

The guy whose car they stole for having a fast and flashy car (Subaru Impreza)?

The boys for stealing it?

The parents for having failed to instill moral values into their children, for not knowing what they were doing or where they were in the early hours of the morning?

The Police for doing their jobs?

The guy who owned the fish and chip shop for having chosen that site to have it on?

The Government for having laws that they could break?

A society where it is cool to be in a gang where you have to show how daring you are, cool to be bad, cool to be seen with those that are?

The fact is that there is no one to blame for what happened, a sequence of events began with the theft of a high powered car, young boys that believed they could control it, that wanted to feel powerful for a while and have the thrill of being able to tell all that they outran the police, that they were the top guns.

It ended when they could not control the car and tragically hit the wrong side of the building, the side where the gas main was installed.

The guy who owned the shop was only interested in how the parents would be feeling, though he is going to lose a lot of money while he is closed, and that will be a long time as you can see from the picture of the building. That is all anyone said that was interviewed, our hearts go out to the parents.

And so does mine, for whatever their sons were or were not, whatever they did, however they were raised they did not deserve for it to end like this.

Our thoughts are with them at this time, for right now each one of them will be blaming themselves.

The case of Baby P has been widely published, and the perpetrators brought to a semblence of justice. Of course that will not bring Baby P back or make up for the suffering and pain he lived through in his short little life.

Questions have been asked in parliment no less, after it emerged that the Government had been alerted to the failure of the child services to look after this child before his little back was broken and long before he died. As usual the plea was shrugged off with sort it out locally.

It is my belief that whoever made that decision should be publically named and shamed, surely if they had been alerted it meant that it could not be dealt with locally? That someone felt that the only chance that this child had was for the Government, supposedly the protector of the people, to step in and make something happen? It seems our esteemed ministers, secretaries, MP's have better things to do than actually help the people that they are supposed to be serving. Wonder if the bar had been open early that day?

It is a sad state of affairs when even the police are ignored in their concern for the babies welfare. Does not the fact that they repeatedly asked when the time would be right for a care order alert you to the fact that you are obviously missing something? Or was it a case of ruffled feathers, you know the 'We are the experts not you' kind of thing? Clearly they were not, and once again a child has died because of the lack of care from Social Services.

I know that these people are overworked and short staffed most of the time, but it is a sad excuse for yet another mess up that resulted in another childs death.

At least 47 Children under five die every year due to Parental or main carer abuse, that does not include the many that live through the abuse to grow up and possibly repeat the cycle.

As a parent I know the frustrations of having a crying baby in the house, most of us though take that frustration out on something else, the cleaning, the gardening, the husband.

Is it not time as decent Human beings that we stopped passing it by? That we stopped thinking it was 'their business' and we should not interfere? This is why we have child protection, this is why we have the NSPCC, because there are people out there that treat children like possesions, objects that they can use and abuse as they please. It is time we, the 'decent' people showed them that children have a right to a decent life, they have a right to be fed and loved and looked after properly, they didnt ask to be brought into the world, it is not their fault they are hungry or cold or lonely.

Stand up for the rights of children and if you see abuse then report it, if you suspect there is abuse, look into it, you may be wrong, but on the other hand you may just save a childs life.

In fact it hurts a great deal

It may not hurt you as you go to sleep with your tablet laden body never to move again, and you may not feel the pain of the noose around your neck or the fall from the building or cliff.

But those left behind will feel that pain for the rest of their lives, those left behind will not have the grace of death to blot out the nastiness or the recriminations.

Those left behind,
I wonder

have you actually thought about them at all?

Let me show you what you leave behind you, before you make that final decision, let me show you the havoc your final decision creates in the world you have decided no longer deserves your presence.

Your wife/girlfriend/husband/boyfriend/parents, will always wonder why you did not go to them, why they could not help, what could they have done to prevent it, why they did not manage to be there to stop it. Why you did not love them enough to let them in, where they failed.

Your children/siblings, Will always wonder what they did to make you leave them, what they could have done to prevent it, why they could not be there to stop it, why you did not love them enough to let them in, will they end up the same way

Yout friends, will always wonder, why you did not go to them, why you would not let them in, why they could not help, why were they not there with you, to stop you, where did they go wrong.

Of these people some of them will hate you for what you have done, for a long time, though underneath they will always love you.

For most of them you will leave a lifetime of self doubt and a feeling of being unable to come to terms with what has happened.

Before you take that final step and make that ultimate decision, think.

Think hard

How would you feel if you were one of those left behind?

And dont use the excuse that they are better off, that you are doing it for them, because to be true to them and show them how much you really do care, you would stay and not take that final step, you would show them by being there and doing your best to make things right, and by letting them help you to do it.

you are never alone, though you think you are, because there is always someone left behind, so how can you be alone?

It is never easy to face your demons, your shortcomings, your adversary, but, you can always ask for help.

A whole life in front of you and a whole world of adventures to discover, why throw it away when it is just round the corner?

Please think again.

*A high number of suicides have been recorded over the past twelve months and this piece is to let anyone out there considering this acttion know of the devastation that their actions bringP

In just over a week no less than three men have been found guilty of murdering women, two of them proven to be multiple murderers and the other suspected of murders in Australia where he had gone after killing here in this country.

The crimes span six years between these three, and we have to ask the question, is it not time that this country had sentences that match the crime?

This is not a debate about Capital Punishment, though it has been proven that it can be a useful detterent it has also been proven that once having killed, even accidently a killer will decide that he has nothing to lose by doing it again as you can only die once.

This is about the ludicrous sentencing system in this country that means a Judge has to specify the amount of years that a killer has to serve, sentencing them to life does not work here as they would be out in a matter of a few years. Is it not time that 'life' sentences in this country matched those of the country the killers try to emulate?

In America 'life without parole' means just that, the only way you leave is in a box, not seven years later having had your sentence automatically halved the minute you enter the prison gates, and then get another half wiped off for 'good' behaviour!

These three hopefully will not walk out the gates in that time, no less than thirty five years for at least one of them, and it may be that he will never walk out, but there is also the chance that he will, how old will he be, seventies? Can you honestly say that even at that age they are not capable of carrying out a murder or of, even worse, training someone else how to do it? And yes there are people out there that will write to these people and beg them for pointers in their crimes!

We live in a world where Human life seems to be a throw away commodity, is it not time to say enough, and to place a proper value even if it is only in terms of sentencing, upon the lives of those unfortunate enough to cross paths with those that think it is their right to take what is not theirs, a life.

With the news of yet another stabbing in a school this morning in Leeds we have to ask the question, What will it take before something is done about safety in schools?

A 14 year old boy is this afternoon 'Comfortable' in Hospital after being stabbed in his classroom by a 13 year old student. The incident happened at Allerton Grange School in Leeds and kind of makes a mockery of the wording used by the head teacher in his school prospectus

He wrote: "Our aim is that your child is safe, is taught well and is encouraged to develop his/her skills and talents as a responsible member of the school and the wider community. We may be a large school, but your child will be known by the staff whose job it is to look after them while they are here."

Hmmmm, try telling the 14 year old boy's Mother and Father that he is 'safe' at school!

How many more stabbings, beatings and kickings will it take before the people in charge of Education face the fact that we have a problem in our schools? Is it going to take a columbine tragedy? Is one of our students going to have to get a gun and shoot down his fellow classmates and teachers before this problem is addressed?

School should be a safe place to send your children, it is no longer a safe place, not when your child ends up in hospital with stab wounds, and using statistics to say that the amount of stabbings, beatings and kickings are neglible to the amount of children attending school is a cop out, one child in hospital is one child too many!

It is time that this problem was dealt with instead of being swept under the carpet!

A baby has had its very short life ended and the young parents have suffered a loss that all parents fear, that of the loss of a child.

A faulty boiler explodes and a child dies, not the first even of this kind but surely it should be the last?

The first night in a new house, supplied by the council and this tragedy occurs, but who is responsible for what happened? Had the parents been aware of the dangers of this type of boiler blowing up and raining scalding hot water on their chid it is safe to say that they would not have placed the child in that room in that place, perhaps even refused to move in to the house until it was replaced.

This was a council property, was this their responsibility, especially in the light of the same thing happening four years ago? Surely when a tenant moves out and they take the proerty back then they should check all equipment and replace what needs replacing? They do in my district, well most of the time anyway.

They had knowledge of this happening before, should they have replaced all the boilers of this kind that were in their proerties in order to prevent such a thing happening again instead of keeping quiet about what had happened?

Are the boiler manufacturers at fault for having faulty thermostats? But that would only apply had they been made in this country where they have to pass rigourus tests to obtain the seal of approval.

Personally I believe that the Council should carry the blame for this one for two reasons, one not advising or making it publicly known that these particular types of boliers have a danger of blowing up and two, for not replacing them in the properties that they own and rent out to young couples with young children.

As the courts have so rightly declared, this was an accident waiting to happen that could have been avoided.

When Jamie Bulger was murdered by two young boys the country was aghast as much at the fact that two little boys had kidnapped and murdered a child as much as the actual crime.

Those boys are now living in another country with new names and a new life.

History has taught us that children can and do commit horrific crimes, and not just the juvenile and petty things we associate with our young ones.

That is until now, the Bulger case opened a debate on whether young children could be tried in a manner that befit the crime. We have seen over the past few years people that we call children commiting what we class as Adult crimes, namely rape and murder.

The time when children would run if you mentioned telling their parents or if they saw a police iniform has long gone, nowadays they stand and swear at you, throw things at you physically attack you.

We have passed laws that have virtually made these children untouchable, they are not scared what have they to fear? they are minors, they can go out and knife the kid down the road because he said something they didnt like and know that they will probably do community service for it.

Children know they can do wrong and get away with it, and if they know this then surely they know the difference between right and wrong?

In which case they know what they are doing when they take that knife or that gun and use it to take anothers life.

If a child knowingly commits an adult crime, should that child be tried as an adult?