Cowardice, a powerful word in the English language.

What strikes me about most, if not all, thugs is the gap between image and substance: the image of the “hard man” with “street credibility”, versus the reality of a coward. As a society, if we want safe streets, we need to stop promoting these thugs careers with convictions of GBH and Assault.We need a new criminal offence: cowardice.

We must hit these thugs were it hurts most: their reputation. A key component of this policy will be to post conviction details and a mug shot on court websites. These thugs must be seen for what they are.

Knife crime. Frankly, our politicians simply don’t understand it.

Even if this policy only cut knife crime by 10%, it would be worth it.