In the past few weeks in my neighbourhood there has been a �shooting and double stabbing� outside the pub. This was to do with rival drugs gangs. There has been a �mass gang fight� resulting in two hospitalisations, one in a serious condition. There has been an armed robbery of a bank* in which a security guard was shot in the stomach (�serious but stable condition in hospital�). Two men have just been convicted of the murder of a lady shot dead in her car last year. The killer meant to shoot the man she was with because he had shown �disrespect�. The borrowed gun had also been used to kill a 20 year old female in the same area in 2002. A man was stabbed to death as he walked home from his friend�s house in the early hours one morning.

* My friend Pete told me that he didn�t do it as staff are not allowed out on breaks anymore

These are the only recent incidents that I could think of from the top of my head and then Googled and got the quotes from BBC and local news bulletins. There are probably a few more. The government are dealing with these issues by opting for more visible policing in the local area. Somehow I don�t think that blanketing with police is going to get anywhere near the root of what is going wrong or will solve anything. It makes me a little sad to think they can fob everything off with more visible policing like it will make everything ok. Maybe they should try looking at the cause of violent gang wars, the culture of weapons etc.

It reminds me of when I was deciding whether to go to college or stay on at school. A teacher told me not to go to my local college even though I really wanted to attend (I can walk! There are nearby shops! I can go home for lunch! I don�t have to be busing it with drooling people! I can have friends near to where I live!) because of the gang warfare. She did concerned teacher face (exactly the same as concerned mother face) and I was all psssssht. A kid was stabbed to death on the first day by a member of a rival gang.

Ho hum, in lighter news I have a butt kicking digital camera of my very own! It is tiny, shiny and lovely but gets through batteries like no other battery consumer I know. This is the typical life span of a camera battery:
1. whoooo i�m alive out of the packet! Look at my shiny outer case with promises of longevity! Oooooooooooh going to go and power things.
2. vooosh clunk clunk shudder dying
3. beep beep! Battery low.
4. (3 seconds later) Battery dead.
This means that even though the camera is sleek and tiny and takes up no space in my bag it is still weighed down by apprimately 7000 batteries.

Finally, my friend Mrs Tracksuit wore a soft pink top today and I practically reeled in shock. She still had tracksuit bottoms on though which I think was all that prevented me from fainting.

Inkysoso political and showbiz correspondent