Too much woke and not enough awake, Sadiq. It's got to stop

Crime is everywhere, the police nowhere. We’ve had enough

- Chris Blackhurst

THE latest crime statistics for London make for appalling reading.

As the Standard reports, knife and gun crime both jumped by 20 per cent last year. The Office for National Statistics says that 14,626 knife offences were recorded in the capital in the 12 months to the end of December. That's an average of 40 a day. Gun crime was also up, by nearly 200 on the 1,010 recorded by police a year earlier.

They are the numbers. They provide only an indication of how bad it has become. In truth, Londoners don’t need them — we know already, we’re all too aware that we’re under siege. Whether it’s the roadmen standing by Turnham Green Tube, waiting to follow my son and his pals, and rob them of their Jordan’s, phones, cards, shopping. Or the guys in broad daylight at Barnes Bridge using an angle grinder to cut through the bike locks. Or the shoplifters brazenly strolling into Sweaty Betty, M&S and Boots and helping themselves — we’ve seen all three, and only this morning a man walked to the front of the queue in Gail’s, leaned over and took a handful of pastries and wandered off. Or the group that descended on Terrace Gardens in Richmond and threatened everyone, taking what they wanted and lifting their shirts to reveal what looked like the handles of knives tucked down their waistbands. Or the luxury watches that must remain locked away and the friend who wore his, only to be attacked by three men on two mopeds, brandishing baseball bats, on Putney Common.