Boris Johnson: We need to deglamorise knife crime

Gang members involved in knife crime should be seen as "moronic" rather than as glamorous figures like Shakespeare's Mercutio, Boris Johnson said today.

Giving evidence to the Commons home affairs committee, Johnson said: "My heart sinks when I hear and read of some of the language used to describe some of the victims of knife crime by other members of gangs.

"This stuff about 'You were a good soldier' or 'Fallen soldier'; we do need as repeatedly as possible as a society to detonate the myth that there is anything romantic or glamorous about these tragic episodes."

He added: "We need to deglamorise knife crime and make clear to people that this is moronic and wasteful.

"This is not the death of Mercutio taking place on the streets of London."

Asked to explain the reference to Romeo and Juliet, Johnson, who is often fond of quoting from the classics, said: "It is a guy called Mercutio who is killed in a gang fight.

"It is worth studying the text because it does teach you something about the bogus atmosphere of glamour that can surround these gangs and the sort of romantic, sentimental feelings that can start to occur with knife crime and gang culture generally."

Johnson said figures respected by young people, such as Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand, should be recruited to "speak against the evils of carrying knives".

Home secretary blames media for confusion over knife criminals' visits to victims in A&E

· Smith backtracks as No 10 proposals overshadowed
· PM to publish £100m family intervention plans

Gordon Brown's initiative of a huge expansion of family intervention projects to reduce youth crime was overshadowed yesterday when Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, was forced to backtrack on widely ridiculed plans to order perpetrators of knife crime to visit their victims in hospital.

Smith said the proposal had been misinterpreted by the media, but in at least two broadcast interviews on Sunday she failed to clarify her plans.

Dominic Grieve, the shadow home secretary, accused her of a U-turn and gimmickry. "This is yet another government announcement that has been conjured up in three days and collapsed in three hours," he said.

The Home Office insisted Smith had never advocated taking knife criminals to see their victims in hospital, a proposal that would have echoes of Tony Blair's plan for forcing yobs to march to cashpoints to pay fines.

In the Commons, Smith said: "I never said, and nor would it be sensible, for young people to be trailed through A&E wards while people were being served."

In two interviews including one with Adam Boulton for Sky news she was asked "One of those proposals is that people caught carrying knives should be taken to see people in hospital that have been stabbed or to meet the families of victims. Is that correct?" Smith replied: "It is."

At his monthly press conference, Brown said: "Too many people, young and old, do not feel safe in the streets, and sometimes even in their homes, as a result of the behaviour of a minority."

>Families in the worst trouble would sometimes be required to live in residential accommodation while they try to resolve their chaotic lives. Families that refuse could be evicted if they lived in social housing, Brown said.

>Brown also added: "We need to make it absolutely clear to everyone, especially young people, that in our country there are boundaries of acceptable behaviour. It is completely unacceptable to carry a knife".

>"Communities ... should have a role in deciding what they should do, cleaning up parks or scrubbing graffiti, and what time they should do it, such as cleaning the streets on Friday and Saturday night."

>He said community payback should be "tough, visible and effective", but he did not advocate that those undertaking it wear uniforms, as proposed by Casey.

T in the Park: Music fan was stabbed 11 times

A music fan who was stabbed 11 times in an attack at a rock festival was nearly killed for trying to help a female friend caught up in a row with two men.

Tayside police said the 22-year-old man suffered eight stab wounds to the body and three to his head in an attack which is being treated as attempted murder. It is understood he tried to help his friend after she began arguing with two men who were urinating on her tent shortly after midnight on Saturday at the T in the Park festival in Kinross.

Eyewitnesses said he staggered through one of the campsites looking for help. He is now stable at Ninewells hospital in Dundee after treatment at the festival.

The victim, believed to be from Glasgow, was interviewed by detectives yesterday and police believe they have recovered useful scientific and eyewitness evidence from the scene and his clothing.