On the day Blackbird Leys residents were coming to terms with another stabbing on their streets, Conservative Party leader David Cameron was in Oxfordshire calling for a new "social covenant" between individuals and the state.

The Witney MP said he was profoundly moved by the murder of 11-year-old Rhys Jones in Liverpool this week and added his death should not just be allowed to become "another testimony of despair".

Parents had to know where their children were, and needed help to "do their job properly" - if not they should be "shamed" into doing so.

He attacked magazines that glorified "getting wasted" and music firms which "grew fat on the profits of exploiting black youth".

He said social responsibility meant there needed to be a "national recognition" that individuals had to play their part in creating a better society.

Strengthening families and communities and changing culture was the most important part of a three-dimensional approach to changing society, he said.

Speaking to a military audience at RAF Brize Norton, Mr Cameron said there was "nothing inevitable" about social decline in Britain.

But he called on people to ask themselves how many more parents would have to "bury their children before we decide to choose a different path for our society".