Buying knives online could make police suspect you...

[walk in the woods]

5 hours ago, ianwilkins said:

but it doesn't feel like that, though I don't suppose it would

Indeed, this is the metaphorical frog in the pot of water, unable to determine the temperature is slowly rising....

The difference between cultures is interesting.  I found this particular bit of the page you referenced disturbing:

Quote

Good reasons for carrying a knife or weapon

Examples of good reasons to carry a knife or weapon in public can include:

• taking knives you use at work to and from work
• taking it to a gallery or museum to be exhibited
• if it’ll be used for theatre, film, television, historical reenactment or religious purposes, for example the kirpan some Sikhs carry
• if it’ll be used in a demonstration or to teach someone how to use it

A court will decide if you’ve got a good reason to carry a knife or a weapon if you’re charged with carrying it illegally.

I bolded/italicized the bit at the end.  I'm not a lawyer, but, if this is indeed the case, I believe we'd call that unconstitutionally vague over here.  I mean if we're talking 4 years in prison and an unlimited fine, I'd want to have some protection against a judge having a bad day.

[ianwilkins]

16 hours ago, TAHAWK said:

 

I don't even know where to start with that lot. Do you really think I should take seriously a text that describes our national religion as an "officially sponsored religious franchise"? It's a libertarian magazine, of course its opinion pieces are going to suggest that tightening up laws is nonsense. Anyway, honestly? The church is not the force it was. That they all signed a letter asking to take the pointy bits off of knives, doesn't mean it'll be enshrined in law tomorrow, doesn't mean politicians will take any notice. Too busy trying to get elected and leave/stay in the EU.

It's setting up a straw man. Let's take a fact in the first paragraph, that the murder rate in London exceeded that of New York City? Why pick New York City? Is it because they're both iconic? Or because it handily comes firmly in the bottom third of homicide rates in US cities*? Is it fair to compare those two? Oh, wait, wikipedia to the rescue again, more murders in London for one month. Woo.** When you actually look over a period of time, London is safer than an already pretty safe New York. 

If you want to take that opinion piece seriously, best of British to you, but I don't recognise the UK it depicts, maybe I'm just lucky***.

I'm assuming two people getting stabbed to death in London only made the news because there was great footage of the perp getting tusked, and the magic words "islamic terrorist".

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate

** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_London

*** I am lucky.

[Cambridgeskip]

To add to Ian's comments, I too find it hard to recognise the UK that article depicts.

Like Ian as well I am lucky. I live in Cambridge. A relatively small city at approx 160K local residents and around 30K students, and also a very wealthy area, but an urban area nonetheless. And I can say there is not a single street or area that I would feel in any way unsafe visiting. There are perhaps 2 or 3 streets where, should I find myself walking through them at 2am, I would keep my wits about me and not wave my wallett or phone around, but nowhere feels unsafe.

Some of our larger cities do have some more dangerous areas. Nottingham, for a while at least, had some dangerous areas. Manchester has one or two areas I would steer clear of. Nevertheless these are exceptions and I don't know of anyone that feels generally unsafe.

There has been a rise in violent crime in recent years. Yet these are percentage point changes in what are already very low numbers. Some of our more shouty newspapers keep going on about "Wildwest Britian" but this is a picture I don't recognise. There have been some terrible tragedies, the Jodie Chesney murder earlier this year was particularly shocking, yet these are still isolated incidents in the bigger picture. Fact is that on Thursday evening, when scouts has finished, me and the other leaders will go for a beer at a pub called the Carlton Arms. In theory the Carlton is on a street that has a high crime rate as the UK goes. I can tell you I will think nothing of walking up and down that street.

As for these calls to ban pointy knives, it has no momentum behind it at all. Find an absurd suggestion, any absurd suggestion, look hard enough and you'll find someone arguing for it. It doesn't mean it will happen. There are people in this country who believe the earth is flat. Says it all really.

[MattR]

On 12/10/2019 at 4:27 AM, walk in the woods said:

Sadly most Americans are too stupid

It sure is a good thing we're a forum where we welcome scouter's from all around the world. That way, when we don't understand how something works in a foreign culture we can ask them rather then do a Google search for useless info that confirms our ideas.

@mrkstvns, maybe posting topics that just look like you're trying to get a rise out of people isn't very productive.

 

 

[TAHAWK]

Good point on relative statistics:  "NYPD Chief of Crime Control Strategies Lori Pollock said the [2018] murder rate of 3.31 per 100,000 people in New York City is the lowest in 50 years."  The murder capital of the U.S., East St. Louis, has a rate slightly over three times the N.Y.C. rate, which is falling.

There seems to be differences of opinion even in the UK where all the civilized people stayed, as well as the U.S.  In both nations, some view with alarm and some are content.  So asking gets inconsistent views, much like articles found via Googling "murder rate  UK."   Much like asking Major General J.F.C. Fuller and Winston Churchill  to give their respective opinions about Hitler.

 

 

[TAHAWK]

14 hours ago, Cambridgeskip said:

...

As for these calls to ban pointy knives, it has no momentum behind it at all. Find an absurd suggestion, any absurd suggestion, look hard enough and you'll find someone arguing for it. It doesn't mean it will happen. There are people in this country who believe the earth is flat. Says it all really.

https://wiki.tfes.org/Flat_Earth_-_Frequently_Asked_Questions

[qwazse]

4 hours ago, MattR said:

... maybe posting topics that just look like you're trying to get a rise out of people isn't very productive. ...

Right, because nobody else is ever going to have a UK scouter drop by camp to update you on one of your scout's Totin' chip fails ...

[Cambridgeskip]

6 hours ago, TAHAWK said:

https://wiki.tfes.org/Flat_Earth_-_Frequently_Asked_Questions

These people walk among us.

[RememberSchiff]

On 12/7/2019 at 8:21 AM, JoeBob said:

I'll resist any ban of my semiautomatic butter knives.  You'll have to pry them from my cold slippery fingers! 

Butter knife, as in an 80% finished lower blade?  

[ianwilkins]

10 hours ago, qwazse said:

Right, because nobody else is ever going to have a UK scouter drop by camp to update you on one of your scout's Totin' chip fails ...

Absolutely. I mean, they'd need a translator for a start. Chip? That's a crisp right? Or french fries? 

[TAHAWK]

 

5 hours ago, ianwilkins said:

Absolutely. I mean, they'd need a translator for a start. Chip? That's a crisp right? Or french fries? 

"England and America are two countries separated by a common language."

[Oldscout448]

I am convinced that if the earth was indeed flat, the housecats would have pushed everything off the edge with great satisfaction. 

[qwazse]

7 hours ago, ianwilkins said:

Absolutely. I mean, they'd need a translator for a start. Chip? That's a crisp right? Or french fries? 

@ianwilkins, I really wanted to ask my scouts if they had one in their wallets so that I could I could explain our expectations, but our boys barely carry their wallets, let alone a card they were supposed to have earned three years ago!

Also, it was hard enough sorting out that what I called "mint tea" was what your countrymen called "tea with mint". (That was after traumatizing them by making sun tea in my clear water bottle.)

Edited December 12, 2019 by qwazse

[TAHAWK]

1 hour ago, Oldscout448 said:

I am convinced that if the earth was indeed flat, the housecats would have pushed everything off the edge with great satisfaction. 

One fuzzy lil' monster - Bunny - forced us to keep all telephone sets on the floor - otherwise CRASH!  She seemed to find the noise fascinating and would stare at the wreck for several minutes with her tail swishing.

[ianwilkins]

12 hours ago, qwazse said:

Also, it was hard enough sorting out that what I called "mint tea" was what your countrymen called "tea with mint". (That was after traumatizing them by making sun tea in my clear water bottle.)

We have peppermint tea, in teabags, easily available. Though my only experience of it was on a scout camp, where someone made me a proper cuppa, and another leader a peppermint tea, and as the light wasn't so good, I accidentally took the peppermint tea and added milk. It was grim.

That stuff in brackets, I'm lost mate, as lost as a Portuguese scout trying a Worcestershire sauce crisp, sorry, chip. *Sun* tea? Never heard of it. In a water bottle? [makes sceptical face]