I have mixed feelings on whether it’s indeed fair and appropriate to blame spates of crime upon a specific race, but when the Prime Minister of Great Britain claimed recently that “the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture”, it made me take stock of the possibility of just how much truth and justification lies beneath his retort.

Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture. His remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance and failing to provide support for black-led efforts to tackle the problem.

One accused him of misunderstanding the advice he had been given on the issue at a Downing Street summit.

Black community leaders reacted after Mr Blair said the recent violence should not be treated as part of a general crime wave, but as specific to black youth. He said people had to drop their political correctness and recognise that the violence would not be stopped “by pretending it is not young black kids doing it”.

It needed to be addressed by a tailored counter-attack in the same way as football hooliganism was reined in by producing measures aimed at the specific problem, rather than general lawlessness.

Whereas I may not agree completely in pointing the finger solely at one community demographic, I do believe and wholeheartedly agree with his “Economic inequality” statement. Maybe if we did something about the unemployment and housing problems in the world, maybe we’d see a decline in violent crime.

You can read the full article at Guardian.co.uk