IT’S 86 miles away, but we should be alarmed at the spate of recent murders in the capital. Our first thoughts will be with the families of those who have been killed. Any parent will sympathise with those who have lost beloved children, a parent’s worst nightmare. So young; so much potential; so tragic. And though gangs ordering and paying young members to commit knife attacks may seem a world beyond our provincial experience, trafficking and grooming activity along the A303 corridor gets ever closer.

I guess it was only to be expected that President Trump would use others’ personal tragedy and misfortune as a political football for his own gain, calling for London’s Mayor, Sadiq Khan, to resign.

Worth comparing the murder rate in London with those from the US: to May this year there were 148 mass shootings in the USA, accounting for 149 deaths and 585 wounded – two of which took place in schools.

America’s a big place, but if you look at the 2018 murder rate in cities (that is number of murders per 100,000 population), Baltimore comes in highest (55.8), New Orleans and Detroit not far behind at about 40, the President’s beloved New York, way down the list at 3.4. London? 1.8 - which is 1.8 too many but just over half the rate in New York. I’m sure there’s something in the bible about removing the plank from your own eye, before noticing the speck in your neighbour’s…

Though we lag far behind the US, something needs to be done if more families are not to face the desolation of seeing their children slaughtered. Some have pointed to success that Glasgow has achieved, halving the homicide rate in 10 years (whilst it was increasing elsewhere); the result of a concerted, integrated, community, education and policing programme.

Sadiq Khan has pointed to the marked reduction in police numbers; others have commented that 10 years of austerity have all but wiped out local authority community services for young people at a time when employment opportunities have also dwindled. If young people feel they have no role or stake in society, they are far less likely to be bound by its norms of behaviour and much more susceptible to finding status and value as part of gang. In the last 10 years, whereas need has increased, government allocation for education and social care has been slashed.

Smallsbury isn’t London. But our council support for communities and disadvantaged groups is also now stretched beyond breaking point. The Brexit storms currently filling our airwaves are drowning out the cries of our most needy citizens. Tragic that our next Prime Minister is being judged on the deftness of his proposed Brexit fix rather than his commitment to creating new opportunities for those that need them most.