I am constantly staggered by how obsessed we have become in being politically correct.

The story which got me yesterday was a police force in Dundee which apologised to the Muslim community after a postcard it produced promoting a non-emergency number featured a dog.

As news editor I am the first point of contact for many calls into the News Shopper offices.

Rather than spending time trying to get the right number in the paper or on the website callers just ring the first number they see and I spend a lot of time transferring calls to advertising or giving people the distribution number.

I OFTEN mull what it means to be English. I long since reached the conclusion that if our nation has a defining personality characteristic it is repression.

Sex, drugs, queuing, standing in lifts, sitting on the Tube - we are born repressed and we allow ourselves to be repressed throughout our lives.

A good illustration of this was at the cricket this week.

As avid readers of our website will have seen, News Shopper this week launches a Voices against Violence campaign.

Following a series of high profile killings in our patch, including Jimmy Mizen and Rob Knox, we want to hear your ideas on what can be done to stem the bloodshed which we will then be putting to the top woman herself, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

At a knife crime summit at City Hall today, Deputy Mayor for Young People met with the families of victims of violence.

The idea of the meeting was to share knowledge and methods for tackling the problem.

Mayor Boris Johnson has tasked Ray Lewis and Kit Malthouse with the unenviable job of finding a solution to youth violence in the capital.

Green London Assembly member, Jenny Jones said yesterday there is little justification for Sir Ian Blair's £1m crime blitz and extra searches - when published police figures show violent crime is falling.