by Bill Heaney
First Minister John Swinney has been asked what further measures the Scottish Government will take to tackle the rise in knife crime and to divert young people away from gang membership …
And that includes a knife amnesty similar to the one promoted and publicised by the singer Frankie Vaughan in Easterhouse in the 1960s.
As the statistics for knife crime and shocking reports of violence with blades fill the media, Patricia Gibson (Cunninghame South) (SNP) asked Mr Swinney following the convictions for the murders of John McNab and Kayden Moy—who was killed on Irvine beach, in my constituency, last summer—the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit has said that knife possession increased by 15 per cent among 11 to 15-year-olds between 2020 and 2025.
What further measures will the Scottish Government take to tackle the rise in knife crime and to divert young people away from gang membership?
“I very much understand the concerns that Patricia Gibson has brought to the Parliament today. The Government takes a range of different measures to address knife crime, not least of which is the support that we make available for education programmes in our schools and in the wider community under the theme of no knives, better lives, as well as a range of other actions, which can lead to imprisonment for individuals who are convicted of knife crime offences.
“The Government will always review the steps that are in place to ensure that we have adequate measures.
“Before the election, along with the then Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs, Angela Constance, I convened discussions with a variety of different stakeholders about issues relating to knife crime.
“From those discussions, I am confident that we have a range of appropriate measures in place, but we must constantly keep those under review.
“At the weekend, the current justice secretary Ian Gray made comments about looking at the question of an amnesty on knife possession, and the Government will give active consideration to that.”
by Ken Smith, much missed Herald diarist
SOME people dismissed it as simply a publicity stunt, but in 1968, singer Frankie Vaughan, then a major star in Britain, visited Glasgow’s Easterhouse housing scheme and organised a weapons amnesty for the scheme’s gangs to hand in their chibs, swords and blades. Later, housewives complained that their sons raided their kitchens for knives so that they could get their picture taken with Frankie. We caught a picture of him talking to young men in Easterhouse with a backdrop of Scottish and Newcastle crates outside a pub.
In truth, Frankie returned frequently to Easterhouse and campaigned for youth facilities to be put into the scheme, where hanging about in gangs on street corners was the only recreation available. A youth club was provided, and Frankie’s work began the lengthy process of taming Easterhouse’s young men. It really was a scary place in the sixties.