Living on the front line

Police in Birmingham closed off a road after two shots were fired close to a primary school.

The same school was closed last week when armed robbers attacked a shop in the road when shots were also fired.

How did Britain get like this? What sort of nation are we where kids at primary school regularly hear the sound of gunfire and their parents are advised not to drop their kids off "further down the road"?

I keep hearing liberals tell us that tougher sentencing is not the answer, but they never come up with what is - other than more liberal hogwash about ending "deprivation" or some other garbage. The thing is, 30 years ago the punishment for armed robbery was something like 15-20 years in jail - nowadays you 're lucky (unlucky?) if you get that for murder.

The liberals like to tell us that prison doesn't work - but it does. Very few criminals commit armed robbery while locked up in Strangeways. What is obvious is that an increasingly softer sentencing stance towards criminals does not work.

Until we wise up to that simple fact we will continue on this downward spiral. When will the libs wake up to the mess they've made? When the school uniform includes a flak jacket?