London is open – but its young people are dying

We are not even halfway into 2018 and yet 50 people have died on London’s streets. For families who have lost loved ones, this is another incident; another number added to the list. The knife and gun crime epidemic has got out of control. Mayor Sadiq Khan needs to take action and ensure Londoners are safe.

Knife and gun crime has been a problem in London since the 1960s. My former headmaster Philip Lawrence died after trying to help a pupil outside St George’s school in Maida Vale. That happened over twenty years ago. He was a victim of knife crime, stabbed to death by a 16-year-old.

Young people have been carrying knives for decades, but what has allowed things to spiral out of control? It’s easy to blame the government and claim it’s down to funding, but the problem is much deeper than that. It boils down to class – and there is a certainly a class divide in London.