Divided views on how to tackle problems

VIOLENT crime and alcohol abuse often go hand in hand, but there is a sharp division of opinion in Scotland over the way both problems are being tackled.

Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill has heralded a two-month crackdown on violent crime and, in particular, on the blade culture which plagues certain parts of Scotland.

Why do these campaigns always have a timescale attached to them? Surely they are only going to work if they become part of normal daily police activity, otherwise the problem will rear its head again when the police move on to a new campaign. Tackling violent and drunken antisocial behaviour on a continuous basis, supported by adequate funding, would have a big influence on changing the “booze and blades” culture.

Many of the minority SNP administration’s fiercest critics claim it is soft on crime, with too much influence on community sentencing, to relieve the prisons, instead of short, sharp custodial sentences. They argue, therefore, that this crackdown has a hollow feel.

The argument for and against CCTV cameras on our streets ebbs and flows, but demented drunks hell-bent on violence do not tend to check if there is a camera watching. People would rather see more police acting as a deterrent than cameras.

Neither do violent drunks check the price of what they are drinking, despite the exhortations of Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, who is accused of being obsessed with minimum alcohol pricing.

It is an endemic cultural problem spanning generations, which cannot be solved by short-term or cosmetic exercises.