Report to the People
14th February 2005
Kicking the Habit
As
part of its scrutiny of the Executive’s controversial plans to ban smoking in
pubs, the Parliament’s Health Committee last week met in Ireland to assess how
the ban there is faring.
Much
of what we heard focused on protecting workers in the licensed trade from
second-hand smoke. (A problem, of
course, for the Scottish Parliament, as we can’t pass health and safety
legislation.) But the health aspect
– whether the ban is improving health in the most deprived communities where
it is poorest – is another matter.
In
some pubs over here, though, there are bigger threats to your health than
someone else’s cigarette. Too
many people, as I’ve said in the Chamber before, are still carrying – and
using – knives and other weapons. Indeed,
the figures reveal that half of all Scottish homicides are caused by blades.
This
is the third highest rate of murders by stabbing in Europe and I was glad to
read on my return from the Emerald Isle that the forthcoming Police Bill will
double the maximum jail sentence for carrying a knife.
Ministers are also set to raise the minimum age for purchasing a knife
from 16 to 18 and give the Police the unconditional power to arrest someone
suspected of being armed with a blade.
Only
by letting the knife-carriers know that they will be caught and, when they are,
dealt with severely, will we stamp out Scotland’s dangerous knife culture.
Like
smoking, it’s another deadly habit we need to break.
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