Spare us the feeble Southport excuses

THE SLAUGHTER of the innocents has exposed a brutal malaise at the heart of our society. Violence is now inflicted on young people in a way that would have been unthinkable only a few decades ago. That frightening descent into carnage was encapsulated by the actions of Axel Rudakubana, now convicted of murdering three girls at a dance class in Southport last summer.

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Rudakubana's behaviour is part of a worrying pattern of random and maniacal butchery. On the very day he pleaded guilty in court to the Southport massacre, 12-year-old Leo Ross was knifed to death in Birmingham on his way home from school by another boy.

None of this is normal, certainly not in Britain, which used to be one of the most well-ordered, tranquil countries in the world. Anyone who thinks such a claim is just rose-tinted nostalgia should read the comments of contemporary writers. In 1944, for instance, George Orwell said that "there is very little crime or violence" in England. During the 1950s, when the offending rate was ten times lower than today, the anthropologist Geoffrey Gorer wrote that "the English are among the most peaceful, gentle, courteous and orderly populations the civilised world has ever seen".