Today The Argus launches its Knives Cost Lives campaign. Dr STUART NEWTON, pictured, a biology teacher at Brighton and Hove and Sussex Sixth Form College, looks at the causes of yob culture.

Enough is enough. It is time to stop being complacent.

In the past ten years the number of children aged ten to 17 convicted for carrying a blade in Sussex has increased by 500%.

The number aged over 18 convicted has more than doubled.

In the past two years there have been 13 knife offences in Sussex schools.

So what is being done about it? On the basis of past experience, the answer is probably "not a lot".

Last week, after the murder of 16-year-old Ben Kinsella in North London, his family and friends were courageous enough to march on the streets of a tough area and proclaim to the rest of us: "This has got to stop.

But it won't unless the rest of us stop tut-tutting and start telling our representatives that we need a strategy, not party political posturing.

Last week Channel 4 showed a hard-hitting documentary A Widow's War on Yobs. It featured the courageous Helen Newlove.

After her husband Garry was kicked to death by thugs in Warrington last year, she vowed to tackle the problem. And she has been as good as her word.

She has talked to young people in schools, she has been out with the police as they tackle disruptive behaviour on the streets, she has supported families who have been through a trauma similar to her own, and she has visited Justice Secretary Jack Straw.

She explained her views to him and asked some forthright questions about what action the Government proposed to take.

Her impression was that Mr Straw listened sympathetically but remained unconvinced.

Earlier this year I was invited to meet the Prime Minister and Home Secretary to discuss youth violence and I got the same impression.

They are well-intentioned people who want to solve the problem but somehow they give the impression that there is only one right answer, and they have it, so please do not confuse the latest idea with facts.

Politicians of all parties seem to have much the same attitude.

They exhibit moist eyes and sympathy when faced with the tragedies - then they produce a political soundbite that tries to say something more macho than their opponents.

Whatever the good intentions, it all sounds like a cynical game.

It is largely ineffective because no one seems to have a coherent strategy for dealing with the issue of endemic violence.

Of course we need tough punishments for those who carry and use knives. There is no shortage of ideas here: five years in prison or a six-months' brat camp in Greenland are two of the softer suggestions.

But punishing murderers is too late. There is no cure for murder. What are we doing to prevent the insidious culture of violence that we have allowed to develop in Britain?

Last week Channel 4 published The Street Weapons Commission Report. It summarises what seems to work in tackling the weapons culture.

The commission reported successful projects such as innovative leisure opportunities for young people, support for adults who lack even basic parenting skills, and educational work aimed at conflict resolution.

Police officers, social workers, administrators and youth workers gave evidence of impressive successes that have helped to reduce the level of crime in many difficult areas of Britain.

The message from these projects seems clear - if we want to break the culture of violence then we have to tackle the conditions that allow the culture to develop.

But young people in most other countries in Western Europe are subject to the same pressures and temptations as British young people and yet do not exhibit the same level of violence.

Surely, we as the adults have to take some responsibility for that. Shouldn't we actually feel some degree of shame for the culture that we have allowed to develop in our country?

We are supposed to be in charge. We are supposed to be providing the vision, the guidance, the wisdom, the strength and the support our young people need.

The truth is that too many adults in Britain who should be setting an example come over as hopeless, helpless and spineless.

Too many of our politicians are ineffective, much of our legal system is a joke, too many of our schools are in chaos and too many of our churches have lost sight of their message.

Is it any wonder that our society is so completely screwed up?

This has got to change if we want to tackle violence.

Perhaps the most useful comment on the matter came from the former PM when he said that we have to be tough on crime, and tough on the causes of crime. It is a pity that his inspiring vision was nothing more than political talk.

Now we need to reverse that betrayal of our young people.

We need a strategy for tackling violence that will affect every corner of Britain. All political parties need to be involved in its formulation and committed to its implementation. It will be unpopular in its details, even if the majority of people agree with its aims.

The strategy will tackle:

  • Punishments for offenders.
  • Ideas for taking weapons off the streets
  • Projects for engaging young people
  • Educational initiatives that will address violence
  • Policing that focuses on prevention as well as retribution
  • Improvement of the level of support given to those whose parenting skills are inadequate.

Far too many people, young and not so young, are scared to walk the streets. There are areas of our country that are, in effect, no-go areas. This is not acceptable.

This is home-grown terrorism.

And yet we still do not have any serious strategy to tackle it.

This lack of strategy must rank as one of the greatest betrayals of young people in recent years.

Our politicians are doing nothing coherent about it because we, the voters, are not terrifying them enough.

There will be a general election within two years. Just for once, how about voters getting over the message to those who wish to represent us that we have a manifesto: it involves making our streets safer and reducing violence.

The role of all political parties is to produce a strategy for addressing our manifesto.

Then we, the voters, will have something useful on which we can judge the readiness of each party to run our country.

Edmund Burke commented 250 years ago: "All that is necessary for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing."

At the moment we ARE doing nothing, and evil IS prevailing.

  • Do you agree with Dr Newton? Join the debate below.