GOVERNMENT measures to tackle knife crime have been branded as `half-baked' and `ill-thought through' by opposition politicians.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has outlined an action plan to be piloted in Greater Manchester for young offenders caught with knives.

She says thugs should be forced to visit A&E wards where people are being treated for knife wounds, meet the families of victims and visit yobs jailed for knife offences.

But the Tories and the Lib Dems have dismissed the plans, which are likely to also be piloted in Lancashire and six other areas around the country, including London.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said: "After 10 years, the government should realise that the public are sick and tired of ill-thought through, piecemeal announcements and failed initiatives.

"Sending serious offenders to visit victims in hospital is not anywhere near the same as sending them to prison."

Lib Dem spokesman Chris Huhne said: "Jacqui Smith is coming up with half-baked ideas because the government has been in denial about the scale of knife crime. Now she has been panicked into suggesting a plan that has already been tried and has failed in the US."

A spate of teenage stabbings in London has put knife crime in the spotlight, but in Bolton alone - where there were three stabbings over the weekend - there were 114 crimes where a knife was used either to harm or threaten between July 2007 and July 2008.

Mrs Smith has written to all 43 chief constables in England and Wales reminding them they can require pubs or clubs to search customers on entry.
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