Sunday, July 13, 2008

Which moron came up with this idea?

Young people who carry knives will be made to visit hospitals where stabbing victims are treated, in a bid to shock them into changing their behaviour.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said seeing "gruesome" injuries would be a tougher deterrent than sending all knife carriers in England and Wales to jail.

Isn't there anyone in Government or the civil service capable of thinking through the courses of this action? It took me about 10 secs to come to this unintended consequence:

  • Yoof caught carrying knife - because everyone else does and it is a fashion item.
  • Yoof taken to see stab victim is is duly shocked.
  • Yoof concludes that if this is what happens when you get stabbed he needs better protection
  • Yoof thinks about option - longer knife? - too easy to get caught. Sword? Not exactly practical and how do you get one? Gun? Now that makes sense; easy get hold of (the Daily Mail says so, easy to hide, and best of all nobody with a knife will come near me if they see this.
Great, now we can expect an upsurge in gun crime.

We really are governed by the hard of thinking.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The other piece of idiocy in the BBC article is the "idea" from Dominic Grieve (who I would have hoped had more sense) that primary school teachers can be used to "finger" likely troublemakers and knife carriers at an early age.....

Great! They haven't even done anything wrong yet and they're being reported on to the Big Bastard?

That's way scarier than the stupidity inherent in what our waste-of-space Home Sec said. And infinitely worring because if that's the quality of what passes for thinking in the Conservatives, we really are completely, totally, 100% bolloxed as a nation.

Pass the ammunition, please. Not for nothing am I a former tory.

Anonymous said...

Ha! I think I've fallen victim to some editing of the BBC article I was meaning - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7502569.stm

It now *doesn't* say that Dominic Grieve wants teachers to identify kids at an early age. Hmm. Sorry about that - I swear it did.

Simon Fawthrop said...

FT,

The BBC has form when it comes to changing reports so don't worry too much.