I went to the Royal Armouries in Leeds today in order to take some pics for Vanguard’s son. The Royal Armouries has the biggest collection of arms and armour in Europe, as well as some knives. However, on arrival, after a bit of a hike to get there, I found that I’d forgotten to put the memory card in my camera! Doh!
Even worse, was the discovery that parts of one of galleries have been given up to misleading anti-knife propaganda, which, for example, stated that carrying a small SAK could lead to you being arrested and charged with a criminal offence. Technically, that’s true, but it’s not the knife that would cause you to be arrested, but what you did with it. If you waved it around in a bar and threatened people, or inflicted deliberate and unprovoked injury on someone with it, of course you could be arrested. If you carry a SAK, or any other non-locking folder with a blade length of under 3 inches, then you are not committing a criminal offence at all, nor do you have to justify carrying it. Needless to say, the actual facts were not explained.
I’ve been to two shops this week, which previously sold a few vintage penknives, and both of which had ceased to do so because pressure had been put upon them. They had also been misled, one trader told me he had been informed by the police that it was illegal to carry a knife with a blade longer than 1 ½”, while another told me she had been told by the police that it was illegal to carry ANY knife on your person or in your vehicle. A market trader told me a similar story. Yet, while these good people are lied to and dissuaded from selling legitimate items, every city in England has shops that sell ninja-type knives and swords and couldn’t give two hoots about approaches from the police.
Apart from these blatant attempts to outlaw legally-held tools, what concerns me most, is that rather than being passed on to legitimate retailers, and then to collectors or users, such is the growing stigma attached to knife ownership here in the UK, Grandad’s old slipjoints will instead be handed into the police for destruction.
Carl was asking recently about the attitudes of people here in the UK to knife ownership, and I have to say I’ve found it a depressing week and worse than I’d realised. I was in an antique shop in a small market town the other day when the issue came up. Upon showing a middle-aged woman my (closed) Peanut, and remarking that I didn’t think anyone could get upset about THAT, the look of anxiety on her face said it all
, it's a mystery why this style of beer isn't more popular in our local breweries.(No snow here, just rain, rain, rain, and wind!)
