The alarming news follows BBC Reporting Scotland’s exclusive report on the alarming spread of knife crime to Scotland’s schools.
Repeated on Reporting Scotland yesterday:
‘A 10 year-old boy’s been referred to the Children’s Reporter after a knife was found at a school in South Ayrshire….It followed reports a child was seen with a knife outside the campus. No one was injured.’
News, especially that from the state broadcaster should be usefully informative so as to enable audiences to judge the importance of the event reported, in terms of their daily lives, and to enable a rational reaction to it. This report was lacking in the information that parents, in particular, would need to possess to enable them to react appropriately to the potential threat to their own children, going to school that day. In the absence of that kind of information might Reporting Scotland, like the Sun, be inducing panic in understandably anxious parents?
Here’s the kind of information, context, widely available which a responsible news agency should provide.
Knife Crime in Scotland:
‘The results so far have been dramatic. Between April 2006 and April 2011, 40 children and teenagers were killed in homicides involving a knife in Scotland; between 2011 and 2016, that figure fell to just eight.’
No one under the age of 20 in Scotland was killed with a sharp instrument in 2016/17.
http://actiononviolence.org/news-and-blog/scottish-violence-facts-and-figures
Offensive weapon carrying in Scotland has been reduced by 64%.in the last ten years.
http://actiononviolence.org/news-and-blog/blog-the-future-of-violence-prevention-in-scotland
As actual murder by knife soars across England, is BBC Reporting Scotland desperately seeking evidence to remind Scots that their wee country, characterised by falling crime, remains no different from their neighbour in that ‘cherished union?’
Reporting knife crime, any knife crime, in Scotland?
Talking-up Scotland 
I bet the knives in that drawer are SHARP too!
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Like my tongue? Actually, my father-in-law once allegedly said of this daughter, of whom I know, in a N Ireland accent, ‘Ah she has a sharp tong in her hayad!’
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Yup, so sharp ye’ll cut yersel’ one of these days 😀
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Well, blow me over with a feather, I am in complete shock, mouth hanging open, wide-eyed in wonder, total and utter surprise.
GMS radio Scotland – they had a report earlier on glasgow city council and women’s fair pay agreement and managed to not mention any political parties, that’s not the surprising thing. Now within the 8-9am prime time they actually reported that it was the Labour Party that was in power during the dispute (they didn’t say they actually went to court to ensure the women didn’t get fair pay) but has been resolved with the new SNP administration – nobody from the union or the Labour Party was available for comment (ahem), but they had Susan Aitken of the SNP on (it quickly went on to a chat about buildings in glasgow).
I admit the usual raving SNP-bad reporting that usually comes to pass after a semi-positive report didn’t come to pass last time. So is that one reasonable report a week without backlash, that we can now expect?
Or are some people somewhere seeing the way the wind is blowing and deciding their jobs are more important than a dysfunctional union?
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I will temper my enthusiasm about radio Scotland by saying that they have still failed to reveal Richard Leonard’s involvement in ensuring women did not receive fair pay, for decades – this would, surely, normally be a scandal, him being a leader of something and all.
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There’re probably knives and scissors in the school (kitchen, dining room, classrooms etc). The hysteria about 1 knife in a school is unbelievable. Its what is being done with the knife that is important – and in this case it was NOTHING.
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Exactly!
At school in my day (some time ago) we all carried pen-knives. They were regarded simply as tools for sharpening our lead pencils.
I have no recollection of one being used as a weapon. Indeed, we were taught to be very careful in their use in the same vein as being trained not to play with matches.
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William Henderson – I was going to make the same point. When I was at primary school during the 1950s almost all of the boys had penknives, as did most adult males. It was seen as a useful thing for any person to have. Boy scouts had knives as parts of their uniform. Anyone wearing a kilt had a sgian dhu.
From the mid 1960s ‘carrying a blade’ became a feature of the Glasgow youth gangs, but the ‘blades’ were not penknives. Often, they were steel combs with edges of handles filed into sharpness. Undoubtedly, subsequently, there was an upsurge in knife crime, particularly in and around Glasgow, but other places had problems’, too. It was not until this century that we made the significant improvements that we enjoy now.
Most of the victims of knife crime were young men and, usually, these young men were in the milieu where ‘carrying a blade’ was part of the status thing and usually for show. I know a few present day pillars of society who carried such blades for the excitement of notoriety, but had no intention of using them. Sadly, the effects of drink and the hotheadedness of youth sometimes led to the knives being used, mainly out of fear and often out of an ego-driven inability to back down. And, sadly some innocent people did receive injuries, often severe and occasionally fatal. But, much of this was within a pretty narrow group. For the majority of the population there was no danger. In London today, while the level of knife crime is appalling, it is almost exclusively young black males who are victims and perpetrators. I am regularly in the London borough which has the highest rate of knife crime. I walk about without fear. Knife crime is serious but we need to get a sense of proportion.
Every school day, there are children wielding knives and other sharp items in home economics, technical subjects and science, and using them for the purposes intended and with complete safety and in an atmosphere absent of threat and malice. There have been stabbings in schools with two fatalities in my recall in Scottish schools over the past 50 years. These were horrendous events, but let us keep things in proportion.
Although, as I have indicated I ad most of the boys had penknives in primary school everyday, I think it is reasonable to have the ban nowadays and for teachers to remove any knife from a child who brings one to school. Regulations require the matter to be recorded and reported to the police. On the whole teachers, police, parents and children deal with this calmly and sensibly. In fact, most cases which are reported are by children who see one of their number with a knife. Almost all o our young people are well brought up and sensible. It is important that we recognise that.
Sadly, we cannot say that about our Nomedia, who will sensationalise things and present them out of context in hyperbolic language, with strong innuendo (tip of the iceberg, its’s a jungle out there, etc.) Project Fear has been a journalistic trope for aeons.
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When I was at school,we all carried around rectangular metal boxes, labelled Geometry Set, which we were exorted to purchase. This contained at least a pair if compasses, with quite a sharp point and often a pair of dividers with two sharp points.
I do not recall anyone hurting anyone else with these implements, though now and then someone would hurt themselves through careless use,
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But did we have a stronger moral compass then?
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@Moral compass – ho ho – rather good witticism there John – you’re on form. Sorry to go off-topic but could I just update on something Contrary mentioned about the bloke from The Spoons (Tim Martin is it?) apparently setting up the Wetherspoon’s ‘news’ paper to promote a hard or no deal brexit. Buzzfeed are carrying an interesting article on this development – Link and snippets below:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/markdistefano/wetherspoons-hard-brexit-magazine-spectator-columns
Anyway, if you’re a Spoons regular you may have noticed Martin is also producing a new in-house magazine called Wetherspoon News. According to a spokesperson, the magazine has a circulation of 350,000(!!!!!).
If you open up Wetherspoon News, you’ll quickly find that along with news about the pub chain, there are columns about Brexit lifted entirely from some of the nation’s most well-known newspapers and magazines.
A Wetherspoons spokesperson confirmed to BuzzFeed News the magazine did not get permission from the publications or enter into a commercial agreement to reprint the columns.
Suffice to say those publications are not impressed. The Daily Telegraph said it’s investigating the matter, while the Financial Times described the situation as copyright infringement.
“More than 400 clients around the world pay for the FT’s global, independent journalism through syndication agreements,” an FT spokesperson said. “Wetherspoon News isn’t one of them and we take any cases of copyright infringement seriously.”
Worth remembering that The Spoons spent £94,586 campaigning for ‘Leave’ in the 2016 referendum – the world has clearly gone bonkers.
Always good to notice a wee bit of CIVIL WAR amongst the britnat hordes!
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I was extremely pleased to see this news (sorry – I lost the link – I think it was carried in The Belfast Telegraph of all places!). I’ve seen nary a mention in the ‘Scottish’ msm:
Former MP Michelle Thomson has rejoined the SNP
In a statement, she said: “Despite my preference to keep it a private matter – having received media approaches stating they have been informed I rejoined the SNP in October 2018 – I feel it is beneficial to issue a short statement in response.
“Since becoming involved in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum – and subsequently as an SNP MP – I have consistently stated that I wished to use my skills, knowledge and drive to help shape a better Scotland.
“After a number of requests from members in various parts of Scotland, I can confirm I rejoined the SNP on October 29 2018 and will be pleased to support them as they build the positive case for self-determination for Scotland.”
Well done Michelle T – excellent news – delighted to have you back aboard the Indy Express – next stop ‘National Independence’ and all the progressive public policy such a destination brings with it. Did someone mention Civil War? – you really will have to try just a wee bit harder ‘Scottish’ msm – it simply ain’t working.
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A friend of mine, teacher of home economics for 40 years in some pretty tough schools, 4′ 11″ and about 7 stone in weight, tells the story of handing out knives in class and then, after the lesson, warning the class she wanted them all back – only to find she’d actually got back one more than she’d given out.
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