ASDA POINTS THE WAY ON KNIFE CRIME.

Much hot air is being expended on the vexed subject of 'knife crime'. Attacks and murders by knife-wielding thugs have increased in number many fold in recent times and some of the victims seem to be nothing but people in the wrong place at the wrong time. The media and assorted other groups have done their bit of ranting and raving and government voices have made the usual banal statements. Nothing very positive seems to have been done, possibly until now.

ASDA, the supermarket chain has just announced that it will remove all single item knives from sale in its stores, with immediate effect. While this move is unlikely to have much effect on its own, it may lead others to consider how to prevent myriads of knives from getting onto our streets. Frankly, ASDA's approach is far too limited and we already have a clear precedent as to what to do with items which should not be easy to purchase, or steal.

In the good old days, shops had counters, behind which members of staff stood; goods for sale were often kept out of the customers' reach, behind the counter or in glass cabinets under the counter. Shops actually had enough staff to see if more easily available items were in danger of being stolen. While some larger department stores still operate in such a way, supermarkets have virtually done away with counter service and have reduced staffing to an absolute minimum. Consequently, almost everything, including knives and other potentially dangerous items, is openly available with little if any oversight. Except for cigarettes.

Cigarettes are acknowledged to be dangerous to health, specifically to the health of smokers but also, though much less so, to others in the vicinity of smokers. After a prolonged campaign, cigarettes have been consigned to closed cabinets behind counters, while knives remain on open display and easy to steal. Why ?

Surely the increase in 'knife crime' has as much to do with the easy availability of knives as it does with the number of police on the streets; surely shops which have put knives on open access are every bit as much to blame for the increase as is any government official. The answer to the easy availability is to ensure that knives which, unlike cigarettes, can be a truly lethal weapon, are made subject to strict control. Shops should be made to keep them in secure locations and no knives should be sold without there being proper communication between customer and a trained member of staff who is able to assess the bona fides of the purchaser.

Once availability has been properly tackled, it's then a matter of dealing with the cultural issues which have brought the carrying of knives to such a level. Unfortunately, that will take politicians with the gumption to ignore shouts of 'Racist' and be prepared to get properly stuck in to clearing out the gangs of drug dealing thugs that now seem to inhabit all of our major city centres. 

What chance that happening ?