This is Professor Sir Al Aynsley-Green, the UK Government's first Commissioner for Children. He's a retired physician and child health specialist, a father and a grandfather. This past week he published a report warning the Metropolitan police against their proposed stronger powers to stop and search teenagers who may be carrying weapons. It can only lead, says Sir Al, to greater alienation of the country's youth.

The publication of his report coincided with yet another teenage death by stabbing - London's 14th so far this year. Now I don't have Sir Al's date of birth to hand but I'll wager he's old enough to remember a time when teenagers were so in awe of policemen (also parents, teachers and clergymen) that they kept their adolescent rites of passage within decent law-abiding bounds. I'm sure he's a lovely grandad and I expect the kids he talks to when he goes walk-about with his Commissioner's hat on think he's a terrific old buffer. Unfortunately the rest of us grown-ups don't agree. We want teenagers stopped, shaken down and harrassed till they don't know which way is up. Their parents too. He's worried about alienation? He just doesn't get it. They are already alienated and it's a position they themselves have selected. They scorn those who live within the law. They stab first, discuss later. Time to get even, Sir Al. Time to get mad.

Meanwhile, in Birmingham, a little girl starved to death while in the care of her mother and her step-father. It's a bizarre story. Her brothers and sisters are all severely emaciated too. There'll be an enquiry. But what caught my eye was the self-righteous statement issued by her biological father and her maternal grandmother. A statement of the 'Heads Will Roll' variety. Dad and Gran want answers and they want them yesterday. Well, I have a question too. Where were you, Daddy, where were you Grandma, all those weeks that poor little sausage lay dying?

Oh yes, and I'd like to reassure the ethnically-sensitive that I use the term 'little sausage' in the affectionately colloquial and figurative sense and I by no means intend to link this dead Muslim child to any pork products whatsoever.