Violence and crime - Turning a blind eye won’t work

AS the countdown to what will be the defining budget of the next decade continues apace, as we waver between the hope that a better-late-than-never dose of reality might save us from bankruptcy and the fear that the cure might be too much to bear, we may have not noticed how very violent and crime-ridden our society has become in a relatively short time.

Last weekend, in Holland, the dismembered body of drug dealer and informant Keith Ennis was found in a suitcase in an Amsterdam canal.

Even by the off-the-radar standards of drug gangs that savagery would cause most anyone a pause for thought.