A grandmother’s impassioned speech about inaction on knife crime stunned the BBC’s Question Time audience on Thursday evening, as she accused MPs of not “giving a damn about nobody other than yourselves”.
The woman said she had 14 grandchildren of her own, but is “so scared” of what might happen to them as violent crime in the UK “spiralled out of control”.
She added: “We are fed up of seeing our parents crying. As adults we are not supposed to be burying our children, our children are supposed to be burying us.”
According to the Office of National Statistics, knife crime has surged in recent years – with record levels of knife crime in England and Wales this year.
In 2018, police recorded 40,829 offices involving knives or sharp instruments – which represented a 6% rise from the previous year.
There were at least 56 murders in London from the beginning of 2019 to June 16 and the total number of murders in the capital, excluding victims of terrorism, has shot up by 38 percent since 2014.
She said:
“This has been going on since 98, 99 and people were sat round tables talking about it then.
“It’s now spiralled out of control and you’re still sitting down talking
“What is it going to take for the MPs to sit down and say something has got to be done?
“Has it got to be your son or your daughter that’s got to be killed for you to deal with it?
“I’ve got 14 grandchildren and I’m so scared, so scared. It’s not only London, it’s happening in Manchester, Birmingham up and down the UK.
“The only place that has really taken it up and say they are going to do something is Scotland who got off their backsides and done something.
“And you lot ain’t doing nothing. And this is what I’m working for, to pay my tax to see you lot every year a £2,000 pay rise when people are out there suffering
“Your own soldiers are sleeping on the street that went and served in the war. You lot don’t give a damn about nobody other than yourselves.”
The speech drew wide praise on social media, with Labour MP David Lammy saying she was “powerful and absolutely right”.
He added: “The violent crime epidemic is a tragedy.”
Another commentator called it the “best speech I have ever seen on Question Time”.
Thursday’s episode of Question Time was filmed in Tottenham, and featured Tory MPs Kwasi Kwarteng and Margot James, Labour MP Laura Pidcock, Lib Dem MP Ed Davey MP and Wetherspoon boss, Tim Martin.
In a series of tweets on Saturday night, the president said the Mayor of London is “destroying the City of London” after three people were killed in two stabbings and a shooting.
But the president’s ire was was heavily criticised as stats lay bare just how much safer London is than a number of US cities, none of which have been on the receiving end of a presidential Twitter storm.
In 2018, the UK capital saw 1.8 murders per 100,000 people, fewer than New York, Austin and San Diego.
And when compared to Baltimore, New Orleans and Detroit, the picture is even starker.
The murder rate in Baltimore is a whopping 31 times higher per capita. New Orleans is 22.4 times higher and Detroit 22 times.