Horrifying attack that left my girl, 11, asking: ‘Daddy, is he dead?' proves cops have lost control of Britain's streets
DRIVING home from a picnic last weekend, I found myself surrounded by ambulances and police cars – lights on, horns blaring – rushing somewhere with typical urgency.
'I wonder where they're going?' asked my youngest as the deafening roar of an air ambulance overhead nearly drowned out her enquiry.
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She got her answer moments later as I turned the car into our road and we came upon a scene of horror that no child should ever have to witness.
A man had been brutally stabbed, felled by the alleyway a few doors down from our home.
Blood had gushed from his wound, soaking the pavement where just hours earlier my 11-year-old daughter and her friends had drawn love hearts with giant colourful chalks.
Utterly shocked
The assailant had fled by the time a team of armed cops arrived but there was another man there also covered in blood.
He had been walking past when he saw someone in their 'early 20s' being chased and then stabbed multiple times in the leg and went to help.
He looked utterly shocked, as was my clearly traumatised daughter, who asked: 'Is he dead, Daddy?'
Fortunately, the victim was by then stable in the ambulance.
And not just because of this quick-thinking bystander and the emergency medics who were fast on the scene, but also thanks to a doctor neighbour arriving home just as the attack unfolded.
I hope whoever was knifed on that stiflingly hot Saturday remains with us and does not become, as I write this, the 37th homicide statistic in 'Sir' Sadiq Khan 's crime-ridden London this year.
But that victim will come along soon and the chances are they will meet their fate at the end of a blade (46 per cent of the 570 murders in England and Wales last year involved a 'sharp instrument'.)
Moment Bridgerton star FIGHTS thief who took phone by tackling him to ground
The police have lost control of Britain's streets.
Gangs are running around our towns and cities committing violent acts in broad daylight because there is no one to stop them.
Further evidence came the following day when TV presenter Selina Scott told of being attacke d and robbed in London the previous week.
She was out shopping in Piccadilly, a stone's throw from the Ritz Hotel, when she was set upon by a gang of 'seven or eight men and women' who hemmed her in and stole her purse.
The incident, she said, left her feeling 'humiliated', 'sick' and above all, 'furious'.
But the thing that struck me about her account was that when the gang had finished with her they walked off 'laughing'.
Yes, LAUGHING.
The despicable scrotes who prowl our streets looking for victims are so unafraid of being caught they have turned violent crime into a joke.
They know no one will tackle them because, frankly, there is no one to tackle them. The police are invisible.
As Selina wrote in her terrifying account: 'I resolved to find a police officer, but despite walking up and down some of London's busiest central areas I saw none.'
The same can be said of the streets where I live. Despite being in a densely populated part of North London — an area an estate agent would euphemistically describe as 'vibrant' — I have NEVER seen a beat copper on my street.
Have you ever seen one on yours?
For so many of us, this is the reality of life now.
Lawless lanes where weed -smoking gangs roam freely, making the old and vulnerable prisoners in their own homes.
Keir Starmer teased fed-up voters at the last election with a solution, promising to put 13,000 more bobbies on the beat by 2029.
But then came this month's spending review, which could drive a wrecking ball through that plan as policing budgets shrink by £1.2billion in real terms.
The number of coppers could instead be reduced and the public will 'pay the price', senior cops have warned.
So another policy U-turn — this time very much not in society's favour — from our hapless PM could be on the horizon.
This must not be allowed to happen.
Met chief Mark Rowley has now apologised to Selina for letting her down.
Good. But apologies aren't enough. We're sick of excuses. It's time for action.
We need to see more coppers on our streets preventing crime.
Not just clearing up the bloody remains of another ruined life.
JEFFIN' CHEEK, VENICE
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THE denizens of Venice getting their spaghetti in a twist over Amazon gazillionaire Jeff Bezos and Lauren Sanchez 's lavish wedding this week is a bit, er, rich.
I've been to the Italian island city and, while it is unquestionably beautiful, it is also a gigantic rip-off.
Local businesses like nothing more than fleecing tourists and, as happened to me, sneering at them in wildly overpriced restaurants.
A simple cup of coffee will cost you €12 on St Mark's Square – plus another compulsory €7 just to listen to some snooty signor playing some tunes.
Oh, and those cute gondola rides? That'll be €90 for 30 minutes, per favore.
So, greedy Venice should be grateful that the fourth-richest man and his billionaire buddies are in town.
They're the only ones who can afford the prices.
THIS week shameless Michele Lopez revealed she makes £300 a month flogging her used knickers on Vinted.
But just how used is 'used'? I think for second hand undercrackers it's important to know.
Or is it just the luck of the drawers?
WRITE SHAME
ONLY a quarter of kids enjoy writing, according to the National Literacy Trust.
Which is upsetting news for people like me who love nothing more than crafting a sentence.
But it is also hardly surprising in a world where youngsters spend all day on their smartphones sending each other baffling emojis.
Schools aren't helping by making lessons and homework more and more screen-based.
Maybe it's time to bring back the old hand-held chalk slates.
They might look like something from a Charles Dickens novel but at least it will get kids writing.
And they won't run out of battery halfway through a paragraph.
IT'S ALL GONG WRONG
PRINCE WILLIAM seems like a good youth but when I get my knighthood – and believe me it's coming – I want the King to bestow it upon me.
Former England gaffer Gareth Southgate had to make do with the under-study this week and it just didn't look as historic as it would if his Maj was brandishing the famous sword.
I bet Chaz will do the honours for his new pal David Beckham when his turn comes.
Maybe Gareth should have done a Becks and amped up the brown- nosing.
CLASS IDIOCY
ANOTHER private school, this time in Leeds, has closed following Labour 's green-eyed policy of whacking VAT on fees.
Starmer and his socialist pals insisted the tax raid would see only 3,000 kids forced to quit for the state sector this last academic year.
Instead, the figure stands at over 13,000, says the Independent Schools Council.
It's easy not to care about private schools and assume all the pupils are toffs. The reality is lots are offspring of working-class folk who scrimp and save to give their kids the best start.
If the exodus continues at this rate this policy of envy will not just put intolerable pressure on already struggling state schools but could cost the Treasury more than it brings in.
ONE of my favourite songs – Africa by Toto – has been named the safest tune to drive to.
Its 'gentle BPM tempo and remarkably quiet sound profile' creates the 'perfect audio environment' to discourage risky behaviour like speeding, according to a new study.
Which is quite the accolade for a song that famously contains the lyric: 'Hurry boy, she's waiting there for you.'
LET THE GENE OUT OF THE BOTTLE, KATE & GWYNETH
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SORRY to hear that Kate Moss 's lifestyle brand has hit the skids.
It's almost as if we mere mortals don't believe products like her £75 Golden Nectar skin oil will give us her supermodel looks.
Much like we don't imagine Gwyneth Paltrow' s Goop brand with its £60 candles that smell like her vagina will turn us into Hollywood idols.
No, the only thing that would be worth buying from these age-defying fiftysomethings would be a jar of their evidently good genes.
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