So on a day where Gordon Brown states the obvious and tells us to stop wasting food, David Cameron unveils just how pointless and devoid of content the Tories are likely to be when they're in power. Mr Cameron says that anyone carrying a knife without a good reason should be jailed. No caution, just a straight to court and unless you can prove it's because you're going to the annual knife juggling fair then you're put in to jail.

Quite aside from this rubbish that knife crime is reaching "epidemic proportions", the figures show that knife crime is largely unchanged over the last decade, what is jailing every person with a knife going to achieve? Secondly how is it any better than Labour's "jail a Muslim for political capital" 42 days legislation, given that the main people being shoved unceremoniously into the slammer will be black youths?

Like the recent "Knife Arches" that are completely pointless as they are not wide ranging enough nor are they being used properly by the authorities, stating that you'll throw every knife holder in jail is just a way of looking tough while not really doing anything against knife crime. In fact like knife arches it is a way of legitimately targeting black and Asian youths, particularly in London. Like knife arches I don't see many white businessmen getting stopped and searched for a blade, regardless of if they are carrying one or not. I also suppose that some posh toff carrying a letter opener in his briefcase wouldn't get bothered further while a black handyman carrying around his swiss army knife would be taken to the station straight away.

Knife crime is a societal problem, the vast amount of knife use appears to be because of gangs and the psychology present within. It also appears to be in severely small areas. Tackling this should be about tackling youth issues, poverty, social deprivation...it shouldn't be about criminalising youths and either indoctrinating them in to crime by forcing them to be with other criminals, or to give them kudos by making them serve jail time. Has Cameron never heard of how simply shoving black people in to jail hasn't worked in the US? More close to home, has actually learned the lesson from ASBO's?

No, he's running head long back the way he came (ironically Liberal Burblings is happy to point out his contradiction for partisan means, but clearly agrees with draconian measures regarding knives). This general anti-knife mood is strange, people are panicking and they're not thinking. Be Smith with her knife arches, Cameron with his jail for knife posession or Paul (Liberal Burblings) with his ban all pointy knives...it's all knee-jerk, sensationalist thinking that doesn't actually tackle the problems.

Knife Arches? Simply move on to the next station if you're Black, go through knowing you won't be searched if you're white. Jail time? Drop your knife when you see the plod, or otherwise go to jail knowing you've got more kudos and "respect". Ban pointy knives? Well then you'll have to ban biro's, glass bottles, CD/DVDs, screwdrivers and chisels. And you know what, when we've banned everything that's even slightly stabby, or can be made to stab, violent people will simply move back on to blunt instruments.

Practically thinking, you can't ban knives and you can't blanketly criminalise those that carry them. Why do people carry knives? Some may do so for illegitimate reasons, others because they are simply scared. Do we want to really just throw scared people in to jail and see how they turn out? The problem with knife crime is people willing to do harm to other people. Just like guns are not the things that kill people, knives are just the instrument, just like a broken bottle, baseball bat, pipe or bare fists are. We need desperately to start going down the track of tackling the thought process and the social problems that cause people to become violent as a priority. It doesn't sell papers, it doesn't make a quick statement about how tough you are on criminals, but what it may well do is go a long way to solving violent crime in the next decade.