Barney...
...please establish a link between knife law and a reduction in the number of criminals carrying knives. (You know, the ones who already ignore all the relevant laws about theft/robbery, violence and so on)
Any thieving mugger/scrote who intends to use a knife already does in spite of the current knife laws and would continue to do so under the stricter knife laws most of the hysteria-prone media and members of the public are or would be pushing for.
Why is it at the forefront of policy decision making?
1> Bad news sells.
2> "Crime Waves" of bad news sell even more.
3> Papers, TV and Radio news tell all the bad news they can to sell more papers or get a bigger audience.
4> News media SERIOUSLY overstate the problem, in the process inventing a new bogeyman for us to be protected from by our-friend-the-government.
5> Blaming the criminal is not PC (especially if they are young) and not outrageous enough so they blame the tool of the crime instead.
6> Media calls for "something to be done" about the newly invented evil "knife crime".
7> Public then calls for "something to be done".
8> Politician pays it lip service.
9> Media and public call for "real action" after "yet another brutal stabbing".
10> Politicians think "bloody hell, we're gonna get voted out at this rate" and make a proper proposal.
11> Opposition politicians accuse government of "not doing enough" and pledge to "do" even more
12> So escalates an arms-war of "being seen to be doing something" most of which focusses on the tool of crime as opposed to the criminal or the causes.
I'm not just concerned about knife law.
I'm concerned about scumbag politicians, journalists, editors and spineless letter-writers calling for my freedoms to be curtailed when everyone with any sense of history and reality knows it won't make a blind bit of difference except to further tighten the grip the legislature has on the law abiding public.
This goes for the ID/Database state, knife laws, gun laws, taxation, carbon (the whole lightbulb ban farce and much more besides), hunting bans, the whole "terrorism" bogeyman and so on.
The Bank of England printing more (counterfeit) money is another thing that concerns me, but that is a historic problem and one somewhat unconnected to the issue of civil liberty (which is one of the major elements of the objection to current knife law and the tightening thereof) unless you buy into one or another of the conspiracy theories floating around.