I guess I would see bushcraft as an alternative for those times when there are no other options...
Fair enough. A lots of 'bushcraft' is just about thinking on your feet, something which current society seems to want to avoid. Like rustling up a cooker from a couple of old paint tins.
Knives are definitely not good to carry around, but I know my other half kept a multi-tool in his pocket - would one of those be a decent substitute for a knife for bushcraft?
I wouldn't want this thread to turn into Yet Another Rant About Knife Legislation, it's too important a subject for that, but there are some more general points to be made. For the sort of thing I do when I'm camping, the right multi-tool (it must have a saw blade) is all I ever really need. I use a decent locking folder too, but I could manage without it if I had to. If I use anything else, like an axe or a machete, it's because it makes the job quicker and easier - but unless I'm doing a bit of harvesting or woodland management I don't need such things, and I'd never take them out in the woods with me just for living. My take on it (again) is that it's about rational thought, or common sense, or whatever you want to call it. Government seems to want to make that superfluous, so that there are rules and regulations for everything and there's no requirement (and even no room) for common sense. If it isn't compulsory it's forbidden. Time was when if a bobby caught a kid scrumping apples he'd give him a clip round the ear and send him on his way. Nowadays that would land the bobby in the dock. It's ridiculous, but we're the ones that let them do it. Same with knives. When I was a kid you'd have a penknife, a piece of string and a shilling in your pocket. Call it an urban survival kit. If your knife locked it was because it's safer that way. Now what? The common sense element has gone. On top of that, if you're homeless you're immediately a suspect so you can expect at the very least to get shaken down fairly often. I've got grey hair and I look respectable (most of the time) so being stopped and searched doesn't give me the slightest worry, and about the only time I don't carry a multi-tool is when I go to my judo club. Somebody homeless would IMO be able to make good use of a multi-tool at least as much as I do, but he can't risk it because the knife blade probably locks and best that's likely to happen is that it will be confiscated. It's probably too big an investment to be lost just like that. So the government, bless their 150k a year each expenses claiming souls, make it a lot harder for the homeless because they haven't between them got the brains my dogs were born with and they're all right, Jack, anyway.
Having said that a sub three inch, non-locking folder is perfectly legal and if that's all I could have (although I'd really want a decent pair of pliers and a saw as well) I'd still be very glad of it. I'd still keep it very quiet.