The news that the Government has set aside £500,000 to enable organisations to experiment with technology such as drones and artificial intelligence to try to reduce knife and gun crime seems to be a complete diversion from the need for adequate funding to be released to enable youth services and policing services to be reconstructed in our nation. Although I have personal interest in both drones and AI, the reality is that most of the causes of such violent criminal activity emerges from either deeply entrenched criminal sources or young people who feel that carrying weapons will ensure they can protect themselves from threats from other people. The first of these causes demands much higher levels of provision for our police forces and the second requires a cooperative approach between Policing and Youth Services. Both of these areas need funding that goes far further than the sum offered through this initiative and the risk is that this approach will simply allow the Government to justify saving money from such provision for a period of time whilst behind the scenes the real damage is taking place.