Prime Minister Gordon Brown gives monthly press conference

Prime Minister Gordon Brown gives monthly press conference; Question SOT - Two questions: one, will criminals be offered a reduced sentence if they visit their stabbing victims in hospital; and two, a different question, do you think there are lessons to be learnt over the speed with which the US government has dealt with its own mortgage crisis last week? Brown answer SOT - I think the answer to the first is no. We are suggesting increasing punishments for those people who are guilty of knife crime, and we are suggesting increasing the important activities that is happening. And I just repeat to you so that it is not misunderstood that our policy is to toughen up punishment, to toughen up enforcement and to toughen up the action that we take to prevent people carrying knives in the first place. And your second question was? Question SOT - There are lessons to be learnt by the speed with which the US government has dealt with its own mortgage crisis, and could that have been translated last year to the Northern Rock? Brown answer SOT - I don't accept that at all. We had tried to find a private sector buyer for Northern Rock, we would still have preferred there to be a private sector buyer for Northern Rock. And I think the smoothness with which in the end Northern Rock has been transferred into the public sector, and with taking the action to restructure the company to make it available for private sale is a vindication of what we did. Where there are institutions that have difficulties, as has happened in the last two weeks as you know with another institution, we have taken appropriate action, and we will continue to look at this on a case by case basis to maintain the financial stability of the economy.