This was an awful crime but why would extending stop and search powers to cover 12 year olds make anything any better? That would be like trying to trap water.

The real questions, surely, but much too difficult, are: how are the parent(s) raising children who think it is okay to walk around with knives, and use them to resolve disagreements? And what part does our social, political and benefits/dependency culture play in this? Not to mention perhaps the decline of religious observance, the ready access to divorce (fatherless households far more likely to produce violent and otherwise troubled children), the simplification of narratives in a digital age, the atomistic me culture, the cultural relativity, vulgarity and numbing effects of our "entertainments"....and on...

news.sky.com/story/mother-of-knife-crime...-youngsters-12858466

But no, let's make a gesture so that Police - who aren't even on the streets any longer - can theoretically search any kid they like.

That will sort this stuff out for sure.

Wait for the Gov announcement next week...