Friday 23 March 2012

Minimum knife price planned for England & Wales

From the BBC:

The government is proposing a minimum price of £4 per knife in England and Wales in an effort to stamp out violent crime.

Ministers say the proposal would not affect responsible restaurants or diners. But they predict that it could significantly change the behaviour of those who cause the most problems for hospitals and the police, by making it more expensive to stab somebody. The cutlery industry said the plans were misguided and would hit consumers hard.

Similar proposals are already being considered by the Scottish Parliament. Under the proposal, a minimum price, such as the proposed £4 per blade, would act as a floor and retailers would not be allowed to offer potential weapons below that level. In effect, it would not alter the price of most table knives, but could significantly alter the price of heavily-discounted steak knives, bread knives and carving knives...

Prime Minister David Cameron said the government wanted to reverse a stabbing culture that last year contributed to a hundred thousand knife-related violent crimes and hospital admissions. "Binge stabbing isn't some fringe issue, it accounts for half of knife-related injuries in this country. The crime and violence it causes drains resources in our hospitals, generates mayhem on our streets and spreads fear in our communities. We can't go on like this. We have to tackle the scourge of violence caused by binge stabbing and we have to do it now. So we're going to attack it from every angle."

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh nice one, effendi! :-)

Brugmansia said...

Excellent! :D

Barnacle Bill said...

You jest Mark but this one could come back to haunt you!
There'll be licences if you want to buy/use kitchen knives.
Inspectors to check the number of pieces of cutlery you own matches the number of persons living at your knife registered abode.
Want the Sunday joint carved?
You'll have to book a local council approved carver!
Faint hearted eBay gave into political pressure by banning the sale of Swiss Army knives and now you're giving this particular government ideas!

Lola said...

Hahahahhahaha.

Me? I'll brew me own. Come to think of it I have a nice piece of woodland and scrub out the back where I could easily set up a still....

Bill Quango MP said...

"Will the PM look at my paper on a minimum price for Krispy Kreme doughnuts.
For too long people have been killing themselves with high fat, sugar coated products.
Krispy Kremes are turning into tubbies, decent, pretty middle class voters, not just some sofa flopping, damp under the arms, ugly munter from some northern sink hole.
These doughnuts are so moreish, they are more addictive than heroin!"

William Quango Mp
PMQ - 2005
Hansard

Old BE said...

This and the 45p rate have put me off Cameron for good.

For parliamentary elections I now have nowhere to turn within the "main" parties. Not that it made any difference where I live anyway.

Mark Wadsworth said...

FT, B, ta.

BB, it's not satire, we are bombarded with stories of adults being prevented from buying booze in supermarkets, there was one in the paper yesterday where the 99p store people wouldn't let a 14-year old buy a Glee stationery set in case she used the blade from the pencil sharpener as a weapon.

L, wot? Dig your own iron ore and smelt your own knives?

BQ, you've missed the boat, they slapped Greggs with a 'pastie tax' yesterday (they call it 'aligning VAT rules for cooked food'.

BE, 45p, what a cop out, anybody with guts would stick with 50p or reduce it to 40p.

Old BE said...

Apparently Os wanted to go to 40p and deal with the Sun's outrage, Cameron sided with Clegg. Now the govt deals with the flak and leaves a very unsatisfactory tax rate.

It's like under Major when VAT on fuel was introduced in stages. If he'd gone with slapping the whole rate on in one go the politics would have been easier than doing it twice and giving Labour two bites at the outrage cherry.

If this is the best they can do then they have lost my support.

Turnbull2000 said...

Oh for f*cks sake. Can't believe I was naive enough to vote Tory in the hope they'd be different to Labour.

Mark Wadsworth said...

BE, it is the best they can do and they never had my support.

T2000, don't say you weren't warned.

Lola said...

MW. Well, yes. I needn't dig anything out of anywhere. I can recycle and i have trees. I can easily upgrade to a proper forge fired by charcoal...

Anonymous said...

..... and you can make loadsaknives out of an old leaf spring, which I imagine a man with your vehicular interests wouldn't have to look far for. Steel's ideal, shape's right, job's a good'un.

And the still bubbling away in th background.... you could join the man who's preparing for the solar flare :-)

Lola said...

ft - Oh I am not paranoid like him. I am absolutely sure that THEY are out to get me....

Lola said...

PS. You can make an excellent cross bow out of an old leaf spring...

Hopper said...

You're currently the number 4 hit on Google for "binge stabbing". Nice one. You owe me a new laptop screen and half an americano.

Mark Wadsworth said...

H, thanks, that's made my day.

Lola said...

No 3 on the google search now for Binge Stabbing...

A K Haart said...

Superb.