(no subject)

[aumentou]

Use of language interests me. Take this example:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7421534.stm

The article says that knife crime statistics are not going up amongst adults, but that there is a rise amongst teenagers - where statistics aren't recorded - which means that we can't quantify any possible increase.
Or to put it another way, we don't have any idea whether knife crime is going up amongst teenagers or not, but we do know that it isn't going up for adults.

Then it finishes like this:
"It may be that the recent spate of knife deaths is simply a spike on a graph - a statistical quirk - but there is no doubt the carrying of knives and guns has not gone out of fashion.
Whether this home secretary, or this government, can turn the tide remains to be seen."

So the claimed facts are early in the article, but if you read all the way to the end you're left with the impression that there's a major problem and the government are in a bit of difficulty.

Comments

[cowprintavenger.livejournal.com]

The bit that I find unbelievable is one particular statistic the press seem to be trumpeting - is it a third of young people who apparently carry knives with them on a regular basis? I honestly can't believe this is anything but bollocks, but just to get a better idea, I asked my form (Year 9) what they thought. Do they know anyone who routinely carries a knife with them, or indeed anyone who has even had a knife on them on one occasion?
Now my school has a very mixed intake - a few people from relatively well-off homes, a larger number from a particularly dodgy council estatey area nearby, and the majority from pretty average working class backgrounds, and my form is pretty representative of this mix. When I asked them, they all responded with complete disbelief that so many young people supposedly carry knives. Only one of them has ever known anyone to carry a knife with them, and as she put it, "he was a nutter". OK, they might not be telling me the truth, but I don't think they'd have any reason to lie - it's not like I was asking them to tell me anyone's name, and they knew I was just asking out of interest, not out of a desire to get anyone in trouble. I suppose people might carry knives but not tell anyone else about it, but if the media is to be believed, it's mostly done out of a desire to look hard, so if this is true then the knife-carriers are hardly going to keep it a secret.
So if my mediumly iffy school is representative of other similar areas, and assuming that more affluent parts of England are entirely knife-free, that suggests that if this statistic about a third of young people really is accurate, there must be parts of the country where every single person under the age of 18 is wielding a knife on a daily basis. Seems unlikely...but then perhaps I've led a very sheltered life.

[caerban.livejournal.com]

I wonder at how much trouble I could have got in at school. I was never without a knife at school from 1st year to 6th form. This was not from any malicious intent though. My Granddad was a fisherman and hunter and to him carrying a small penknife/lock-knife was the same as having a pen around so I carried one around a lot, as a tool. I was also a miniature painter and craft type guy so I always had one of those craft knives with the snap off blades. Now both of these were most often in my pencil case in my bag but after a day at school things from pencil cases often ended up in pockets.
I got picked on a lot in my early years at school, being a tubby short bloke at an all boys school sorta lends you to abuses, so I got in a lot of fights but I never stabbed anyone, never even thought of it although I used plenty of other things as improvised weaponry. Odd perhaps but I think it's how you view your knife rather than whether you carry one.

[cowprintavenger.livejournal.com]

it's how you view your knife rather than whether you carry one

Exactly...we carry a small penknife with us when we're on holiday or on days out because we're rather partial to impromptu picnics of bread and cheese in parks, so a little knife comes in very handy. It all depends if you're intending to use your knife on people or on a large piece of brie...