WHAT are the streets like in Darlington these days? It's pretty scary where I live in London, I can tell you.

Violent crime has doubled over the last twelve months. The Government's own figures for London show that there were 48,000 muggings and 20,000 robberies in the capital in 2001.

The figures are so extraordinary they dull the wits, but 48,000 muggings means that nearly 1,000 people are assaulted and robbed every week - about 140 every day. And that's not including the other robberies. In normal times, these statistics would provoke outrage, but these are not normal times. We all know that ministers and civil servants are paid to bury bad news. But nearly 70,000 acts of theft on the streets of a single city in one year alone reveal a society in crisis.

But the Home Secretary is ruled by political correctness which renders him unable to face facts. So he takes refuge in framing a new "initiative on crime" every day - including restricting the police's powers to stop and search. So now street crime is the biggest growth industry in the land and thousands of thieves are laughing as the forces of law and order do nothing to curtail their activities.

There is something sinister and evil about this. The Government insists on interfering in every area of human existence except the one where it could improve the quality of our lives. We are bossed about and nagged about how much we should drink and what foods are alleged to be bad for us. A nasty, spiteful Government infected with class envy wastes weeks debating the banning of fox hunting instead of putting its corporate mind to ending the crime wave.

The crime figures are an utter scandal and a national disgrace. The true purpose of good government is not to poke its nose into every aspect of its citizens' lives but to defend them from foreign incursion and to keep the peace at home.

You must have seen the hullabaloo in reaction to the election results in France where the "far right" candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen defeated the socialist Lionel Jospin. The Times had this to say: "The French election campaign has been dominated by one single issue: crime. French voters have been horrified by the growth in street crime, in violence, fraud, theft and racial tensions in the inner cities." No doubt Mr Blunkett and Mr Blair read the papers. One thing is for sure: if the Labour Government does not act decisively to reduce the appalling crime figures, it will suffer the same fate as Lionel Jospin.

Central authorities in the Church of England have sent out a circular to parishes encouraging them to show TV coverage of the World Cup in churches. It makes you think perhaps we need a fresh chapter in the Bible... "And behold, in those days, they went forth into lands far out in the East and there did play the sport which is called in their language foot-ball. And lo, some did play four-two-four, some four-three-three and others six cubits and a span. And them that did win rejoiced greatly; but them there were which did lose and, behold, they waxed exceeding sick, even as sick as a parrot."