Long Knives Needed: No. 10 Spinning Death On Knife Crime

KNIFE Crime update: spinning death

Sir Michael Scholar, head of the UK Statistics Authority, says officials pleaded with No 10 not to release “unchecked” and “selective” numbers.

Yesterday, Number 10 and the Home Office said there had been a sharp fall in the number of teenagers caught carrying knives in England and hospital admissions due to knife wounds in areas targeted by police.

As Anorak notes, it’s cold out there. Knife crime might be seasonal. Brrrr. Best wait until March when the ‘Tackling Knives Action Programme’ ends to see what’s what. Don’t just publish one part of the numbers. Publish them all.

The Government trumpeted a “17% fall in serious injuries and deaths across nine police force areas over the past six months as well as a 27% fall in hospital admissions.”

But 17% actually equals, er… 17 incidents. In June, there were 98 serious offences. In October there were 81. In fact, the Home Office confirmed to me this afternoon that in September, there were only 68.

Can we see the figures? Er, no, says the Government. But take out word for it. It’s terrific news. In the past five minutes there has been a 4,000 per cent reduction, in real terms, in knife crime. Hurrah!

Says Sir Michael:

“There is a code designed to prevent political manipulation and my authority was set up to police this code. I am sorry to say the Home Office and No 10 broke these rules.”

Pass the knives – the long ones…

Anorak

Posted: 12th, December 2008 | In: Politicians Comment (1) | Follow the Comments on our RSS feed: RSS 2.0 | TrackBack | Permalink