I was amused to see the BBC do everything possible to ameliorate the news that fatal stabbings are at a 30 year high in England Wales. Spot the lovingly inserted caveats in this BBC report today!
“Fatal stabbings in England and Wales have risen to their highest level in three decades, say the Conservatives. The unconfirmed claim comes as the government unveils tougher new community sentences for those convicted of carrying knives. The Tories say police figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show 277 stabbing deaths in 2007-8, the highest since records began in 1977. The government disputed the claim and said overall violent crime was falling.” Does Labour write these “news” reports and just email them to the BBC?
Surely information available under the freedom of information act is freely available. Could they not just check the figures???
Labour does not have to write the news and email it to the BBC, the BBC know what they should write in order to help the Labour party.
Maybe the Beeb is softening? Surely the headline should read “Labour denies fatal stabbings are up”. They’re getting sloppy.
Labour seem to have a patchy reputation when it comes to statistics, judging from the last announcement
Only one of the police forces contacted failed to provide the Tories with the information requested under FOI.
(By its actions, Bedfordshire has shown its commitment to resisting the Tories’ blatant attempts to politicise the police service…)
Do we have a new favourite in the race to replace Ian Blair as Labour’s favourite copper?
I noticed that the Tories claimed the figures on the Toady programme this morning and immediately thought ‘well either the figures are as they say … or not.’ Why the need for the word ‘claim’ other than to question them.
Don’t worry. Turd stealer Mark Easton will be on the BBC today telling ‘us’ that the Tories are liars and that in fact knife crime is falling.
After all Labour wouldn’t tell lies now would they?
“By its actions, Bedfordshire has shown its commitment to resisting the Tories’ blatant attempts to politicise the police service.”
Is Sceptical Steve Jacqui Smith’s husband?
Again Sky’s reporting is far better on this story.
David, if you read what I wrote, you’ll see that I was being sarcastic.
Sceptical Steve | 29.12.08 – 10:50 am
Do we have a new favourite in the race to replace Ian Blair as Labour’s favourite copper?
I had respect for Hugh Orde before he called for the government to talk to Al-Qaeda.
He didn’t explain what Al Qaeda would accept as concession, it was merely noted that his ‘experience in Northern Ireland’ had brought him to this position.
Perhaps he has in mind some power-sharing caliphate, where Osama bin Laden agrees to play second fiddle to Gordon Brown so long as Ayman al-Zawahiri gets the health portfolio and both sides can agree on Vince Cable for chancellor.
Maybe David Vance knows more about him.
Ugg, I always miss sarcasm on the internet. Apologies.
It is a hard one for the BBC. One of their own was stabbedat Broadcasting House, so they dont want to totally ignore the issue. On the other hand, being too concerned might lead you to think that prison is the place for criminals.
There is a POINT to all this, and it is not for the protection of the public at large. As it never is.
We have always had more knife crime then has been reported. The question should be. WHY are they reporting this NOW?
Which should be a question we ask ourselves far more often then we do.
As are the following
WHO exactly decides, what, how, and when, a certain subject is reported, either on the BBC or the media in general.
WHY is it always the same things on the BBC, SKY and ALL of the News-papers, ALL at the same time?
I smell a conspiracy within the entire MEDIA.
Because surly something as important as what the whole media report on at the same time, is not and should not be left to an unknown employee of the BBC. Which of course it is not.
I do not know myself who specifically decides these things. It may be someone employed at the Royal Institute of International Affairs or it may not. But it is certainly decided by someone or some secret group in secret, simply because no one in the public has any idea WHO ultimately decides these things.
What shocks me is that these questions are NEVER asked. Also EVEN when an obvious conspiracy is intelligently and earnestly POINTED out, still hardly anyone can see what is so completely and obviously a massive media CONSPIRACY. Whats worse they do not even have the BALLS to look for themselves. They simply keep asking WHY this, and WHY that, like little 5 year old children repeatedly asking daddy, when they will finally arrive at their destination.
The POINT of all this seems obvious to REALLY intelligent people, so why is it not to commentators on this and many other blogs?
My god many of you people are university graduates. What do they do in that place to you peoples minds?
The POINT being this.
The REAL government do not want their mates and co-conspirators in the criminal world to be disarmed, they want YOU disarmed ASAP.
They KNOW what is coming, because they PLANNED it very carefully to happen a long time ago.
Five people a day SOUNDS like a lot of murder and mayhem, but in reality 250 people a year is almost nothing in the context of a population of 60, apparently free, million people.
This figure also supposes that these murders would not have been carried out by a blunt weapon if a sharp one had not been available. Or indeed poison or by a persons bare hands.
Unless you want, which they do, to have us confined like ZOO animals in our own private cages ie our own homes, there is no sensible way to stop KNIFE CRIME. Other then to arrest murderers or people that ACTUALLY stab other people and give them very long prison sentences.
Our whole free society is predicated on punishing someone for actually doing something that infringes the liberty or life of others or having the provable intent to do so.
NOT SIMPLE HAVING THE ABILITY OR MEANS TO DO SO.
Once the system/law starts going down the above road, common law within a FREE country becomes a dangerously repressive nonsense.
Many of this 5 a day are domestic crimes, most likely committed inside the home with kitchen knives.
When you start having to prepare Fritz or Fido for dinner. How are you going to do this without a knife. When you run out of pets, how are you going to hunt for someone elses?
When starving mobs hit the street how are you going to protect your children from being eaten by the neighbors?
Things may not get that bad. BUT THEY CERTAINLY COULD.
There is much real evidence that it is planned to get that bad, and that until it does the establishment will do every they can to make it so.
The REAL government are simply covering all the bases, because they KNOW whats coming, and they know we are going to like it, NOT one little bit.
Get real people and smell the coming roses, PLLLLLLLLEASE.
Sorry, should read 5 a week.
FFS Atlas, it would simplify proceedings if you could just accept that there is a very nasty , manipulative labour party to be got rid of. Period. Oh, and their apologists at the bbc, currently working overtime to shield them from criticism.
Your OTT ramblings tend to be irrelevant to the above facts.
Atlas shrugged | 29.12.08 – 2:24 pm
The question should be.: WHY are they reporting this NOW?…
…WHO exactly decides, what, how, and when, a certain subject is reported, either on the BBC or the media in general?
WHY is it always the same things on the BBC, SKY and ALL of the newspapers, ALL at the same time?
I smell a conspiracy within the entire MEDIA.
In this particular case, Atlas, it seems to be because the Conservative Party sent them all a press release.
You can find it here
http://www.conservatives.com/News/News_stories/2008/12/Five_fatal_stabbings_a_week_under_Labour.aspx
You know, the simplest explanations often ARE the best ones.
You know what it’s like when you’re out for a lovely walk, the sky is blue, the the air is clear, and you suddenly tread in a huge, foul-smelling dog turd, and you realise your shoe has a hole in the sole?
Or you’re enjoying a lovely book, thrilled at the story, and you suddenly find a huge bogie jammed in the pages.
Or a particlularly fine meal…and there’s a finger floating in the sauce.
This is what it’s like coming across an Atlass Shrugged posting.
Chuffer: don’t encourage him!
Notice the rebutal of Tory claims rests on another statistic, that overall violent crime is down.
The problem with official statistics is the timelag between recording and publication – leaves too much “wriggle room” (“Ah yes that was last year but they have improved this year”)so a ring round is the usual way to get ahead of the game. Good call Toryboys.
Stabbings up to me means stabbings up. But may be fewer people were kicked to death as a result of more knives being carried, or more kids this year were so totally bladdered they simply fell over and failed to deliver a well targetted assualt, who knows.
We know there is an election coming so statistics will be bent. The truth as usual will be the first casualty. And our journalists want to make sure the government gets its message across.
Perhaps the BBC are confused? I don’t think the Tories were talking about bottom stabbing were they?
Atlas, lay off the funny fags, there’s no media conspiracy. A bunch of hacks sit around getting pissed waiting for Reuters to spill out it’s latest lefty bilge. Or something farts out of the fax machine.
Woodward and Bernstein are long gone mate.
“Knife attacks reached a record high last year – with fatal stabbings in London up by a quarter.
Police figures obtained by the Tories show nationwide there were 5 murders a week involving knives.
That’s the highest number since records began 30 years ago.
Stabbing murders in London were up from 68 in 2006-7 to 86 last year. ”
http://www.lbc.co.uk/fatal-stabbings-in-london-up-by-a-quarter-6191
So is Nu Labour/BBC saying the police figures are wrong? If they are – why are they? Is it because the Police are incapable of recording crime accurately? And if this is the case can we believe anything the Police say? Or is it that the “Tories” have got the figures from the police before the Home Office had time to massage them?
Or is the BBC accusing the “Tories” of lying?
Isn’t it time the BBC interviewed a representative of the stabbing classes to get their side of the story.It would be interesting to hear the Hump or Naughtie trying to browbeat a hoodie who carries a lock blade.
I notice the BBC rent boy users are ‘claiming’ that the woman killed by the broken bottle would be classified as a knife crime even though she didn’t die as a result of a knife.
Well presumably that would apply to the figures from previous years as well?
The ratio would be the same. So what point are the BBC rent boy users trying to make?
The Tories point is that since the Scottish mafia took power in 1997 violent crime has gone up despite wankers like Mark Easton telling lies to the contrary.
Garden Trash: A couple of years ago left wing Jon Snow did an interview for Channel4 with ‘young moderate UK Muslims’ who made it very clear what they thought of homosexuality.
Snow’s face was a peach!!!!
The liberals don’t do the interviews we would like to see as they know the answer they will get is not the one they want.
Martin | 29.12.08 – 11:14 pm |
I notice the BBC rent boy users are ‘claiming’ that the woman killed by the broken bottle would be classified as a knife crime even though she didn’t die as a result of a knife.
Well presumably that would apply to the figures from previous years as well?
The ratio would be the same. So what point are the BBC rent boy users trying to make?
They’re repeating the Labour talking point, given to them by the Home Office for their rebuttal to the Five stab deaths a week – Tories
The Home Office said the data used by the Tories might overstate the problem of knife crime as the figures related to sharp instruments, which could include broken bottles.
They also pointed out overall violent crime had fallen by a third in the past decade.
The more violent crime they can classify as something other than “knife crime”, the more they can discredit the Tories’ claim.
The BBC is splitting hairs over the difference between being killed by a knife or another sharp object. It seems a bit callous to try to draw a distinction between the two when discussing a victim, as there’s no difference in outcome. They’re doing it to support Labour.
Would any current or former policemen care to help out on this, please?
David Presier: But presumably people were getting stabbed by sharp objects other than a knife 10 years ago as well so why doesn’t the BBC make that same point? Or has screwdriver stabbing gone down?
When the BBC ran this story to discredit the Tories anyone with half a brain (that excludes Socialists I guess) would simply ask the obvious question ‘has anything changed?’
Being stabbed by a piece of glass or a screwdriver has the same effect.
Of course the truth is the BBC have been found out telling lies. Mark Easton peddles the same lies about violent crime falling every couple of weeks.
Why is it that the Tories keep having to use the freedom of information act to get the truth? Can’t Mark Easton do the same to back up his claims?
That’s me sorry.
Martin
I was with you until you got to “the Scottish mafia “.
Was it the same under Alec Douglas-Home , Andrew Bonar Law or Harold MacMillan (by descent , I know ) ?
Or could it be ,just possibly ,that the common denominator is NOT the Scottishness of these creatures ?
PS. I hated Harold Wilson and he was English . Does that make YOU a c**t ?
Not to be pedantic,but stabbing is stabbing no matter what the implement.
Not to be pedantic,but stabbing is stabbing no matter what the implement.
Garden Trash | 30.12.08 – 1:53 am | #
I’m pretty sure some of the luvvie darlings at the Beeb would disagree with you. Especially on a Friday evening after a few glarsses of champers.
Sorry to detract from a serious topic , chaps .
The guy’s sneering and unpatriotic comments make me angry .
If I hear a Scotsman talk about the English in such a way I growl at them too .
Apologies , again .
Some time ago the BMJ published a study showing that the most serious injuries in non-fatal attacks came not from knives and bottles, but from kicking.
When will the BBC tell us how many serious brain injuries are caused by young thugs putting the boot in?
Never.
It doesn’t follow their slavish pro-Gordon narrative.
“When will the BBC tell us how many serious brain injuries are caused by young thugs putting the boot in?”
These poor deprived young people are reduced to using their feet because the government has made it illegal for them to carry knives.Putting the boot in is therefore entirely the fault of the government.
Alan Healy: Scotland has its own Parliament, so I object to the fact that Scottish MP’s are making decisions about English education, healthcare and so on, yet English MP’s have no right to do the same to Scotland.
Scottish Labour MP’s enforce things on the English (like tuition fee’s) that they won’t see enforced on their own people.
Oh and that fat one eyed cunt is a coward who won’t stand for election. He has no right to be in power.
Anonymous | 30.12.08 – 12:47 am |
Why is it that the Tories keep having to use the freedom of information act to get the truth? Can’t Mark Easton do the same to back up his claims?
Mark Easton behaves as if he works for the Ministry of Truth. The problem is that he always uses at least one statistic in his propaganda pieces, even if it doesn’t always back up what he’s saying. But it’s never “the Government say…” from him; he presents it as unquestionable fact.
The BBC doesn’t care whether or not stabbed is stabbed. Now that the Home Office has provided guidance the BBC intellectual fascists are more concerned about how the violent act is classified than its outcome.
“Knife crime” is down, this doesn’t fit the Narrative.
David Preiser (USA): anon was me. But you have to ask why the BBC doesn’t want to investigate the dodgy claims by Nu Liebour don’t you?
Easton just eats this crap from fatty Spliff and her mates and spouts it as facts. Yet we know the Government massages the figures.
So Easton could easily get hold of these figures and see if the Tories are also distorting the truth or not.
My understanding is that the Tories used official Government stats published in the Commons library.
Martin | 30.12.08 – 5:14 pm |
Easton seems to behave as if he has the real figures, and always reports them as if they are not fiddled by the Government. That’s his whole act. He obviously feels he doesn’t need to look anything up, because he’s already done it.
His blog really does have the feel of an explanation of how the Government was right about something, rather than his own comments on any issues.
I would have thought that knife killings were well well down. A cut to the body in say,the fifties wouldn`t have the same first aid paramedic treatment of today, and hospital emergency equipment and knowledge is far higher than60 years ago. So knife killings should be far less.
Unless there are more stabbings today than yesteryear.
David Preiser (USA): Agreed. It makes me wonder just what ‘journalism’ Easton takes part in.
You’d have thought that for the sake of his own credibility (after all he was all over the BBC news network spouting the shite that fatty Spliff had to say sorry about to Parliament) he’d have started to look into these Government claims.
Easton is just as discredited now as fatty Brown and Spliff. I wouldn’t trust those two halfwits to flush a toilet after they’d used it yet alone tell me the truth about crime levels.
I trust Easton and the BBC even less.
Martin
With you 100% in what you said in reply . Please try to remember that the constitutional imbalance is NOT the fault of the Scots in general , but is down to the machinations of the Labour party .
It’s worth noting that no party has had a majority of the Scottish vote since the 50’s – and it wasn’t our socialist masters then .
We shouldn’t be falling out with our fellow Britons because of the Blair/Brown disaster .
Happy New Year when it comes .
Alan Healy: Nothing personal. I just turn my guns on Liebour politicians. If fatty one eye was a posh toff from Surrey he’d get he same treatment.
However, the current political status cannot continue. We can’t have Scottish MP’s voting to enforce something on the English that they themselves don’t enforce on their own people.
This devolution was always going to create problems and the Labour party are the ones I blame.
Have a good hog thingy me bob 🙂
Ah Martin the West Lothian question.
Wasteminster Labour know that by letting the Scots pay the same taxes but apply local socialist policies (no tuition fees, no prescription charges,right to cancer drugs not NICE approved etc etc) they can be guaranteed to keep sending back Labour MPs to Westminster, because they know no-one else would allow them to go on getting away with that.
All mostly funded by English Southern Tories taxes.
When Margaret Thatcher’s government was at the height of its power, the BBC said it had to perform the role of opposition as Labour was so feeble.
Haven’t heard the BBC use that argument in the last 10 years.