The government’s primary responsibility is to protect its citizens from harm (Ministers accused of dereliction of duty over youth crime ‘emergency’, 31 July). It is clear that government cuts to police, youth work and education have contributed to the upsurge in knife crime. It is also clear that it is still failing to meet its responsibility at every level, from offering help with parenting skills, to providing adequate well-funded schooling, to making sure that children who are excluded from regular classes do not just wander the streets, to providing employment for all 16- to 24-year-olds who need it, to correcting the inequality that pervades British society.
Maybe it is time that parents whose children have suffered from knife attacks should bring a class action legal case against government ministers for failing to discharge its responsibilities.
Dr Richard Lawson
Churchill, Somerset