PM urges war on knife culture

GORDON Brown has conceded Government can never legislate knives off the streets, and has called on families and communities to lead a grass-roots campaign to make possession "unacceptable".

The Prime Minister said yesterday that Britain required a culture change in which the carrying of a knife became as socially abhorrent as racism or bullying.

It follows growing concern over the rate of knife crime across the UK. In Scotland, figures released last week showed that Scots are twice as likely to be knifed to death than people in England. In Glasgow, the worst affected part of the country, the homicide rate in 2002 was 58.7 people per million, the highest in western Europe. Knife crime in Scotland accounts for 40% of homicides.

Brown interrupted his summer holiday to attend the Edinburgh International Book Festival yesterday morning, where he was interviewed by author Ian Rankin.

He used the public forum to declare that knife crime was the "biggest problem at the moment" in some cities in the country. But, he said, the best way of tackling it was not through Government action but by community action.

The Prime Minister told the audience: "Young people are thinking it's acceptable, fashionable, necessary for them to protect themselves, to carry a knife. Just like we made guns unacceptable, we should make knives unacceptable."

He added: "You need not just young people but parents and other people to say that knives in Britain, like guns, like bullying, like racism, all these things are unacceptable. We have to persuade people; it's not a thing Government can do only. People in the community have got to, in a sense, rise up and say this is unacceptable behaviour."

The Prime Minister added: "There are certain boundaries in a decent society you don't cross and these boundaries are cultural – because in America it is acceptable for many people to carry guns, it's not in Britain. I think in Britain we've got to make it as unacceptable to carry knives. I think most decent people in our country would want to do that and I think what you will see over the next few months is this sort of campaign, which is led not just by Government but people in the country to say 'get knives off our streets – it's completely unacceptable'."

Brown's comments will be seen as a change of emphasis from last month when he unveiled an action plan on knife crime focusing on Government measures to tackle the crisis.

The fatal stabbing of London teenager Ben Kinsella has already prompted protest marches and is soon to lead to an anti-knife crime concert in London later this year. The teenager died in June after being attacked on the street.

In Scotland, SNP ministers are also stepping up efforts to crack down on knife crime. First Minister Alex Salmond has said that an automatic jail sentence for possession of a knife will be considered in Scotland as part of a criminal justice bill to be unveiled later this year.

Scottish ministers are also planning to set new national sentencing guidelines – to be overseen by a sentencing council – to ensure the judiciary are consistent.

Brown also used the interview to mount a fresh defence of the UK. He was speaking within a few yards of Salmond's official Bute House residence in Edinburgh.

Brown insisted that the country still shared the same "traditions and values" and also shared "respect for the same institutions, such as the NHS".

He also confirmed that he is to contribute to a new book on Britishness in the coming months.

Brown also reflected on his recent meeting with US presidential candidate Barack Obama, who visited him in Downing Street two weeks ago.

Brown said: "He is campaigning on change and he has got a great message going out the country about how America can play a bigger part in the world and how America can grow."

Brown also praised Republican senator John McCain as a "great hero".

Brown in holiday mood – but the storytelling was murder

Sketch

TRULY it was a rare sight: Gordon Brown in holiday mode. The Prime Minister is in the middle of his longest holiday since he was in short trousers, writes Eddie Barnes.

As he strode into the large marquee erected for the Edinburgh Book Festival in the middle of Charlotte Square at 10am yesterday, we were curious: we knew he could survive a year of almost non-stop misery at Number 10, but what had two weeks doing nothing with the wife and kids on the beach done to him?

Usually Gordon Brown sans tie looks a bit wrong, but yesterday, dressed in chinos, a smart blue linen jacket and an open-necked blue shirt, the Prime Minister somehow seemed more comfortable – quite the man about town.

The holiday must be going well. And Ian Rankin wasn't going to interrupt it, offering him all the right questions (mostly about the PM's recently published book on courageous figures), while ignoring all of the wrong ones (about a certain Foreign Secretary).

The press, meanwhile, had been told that questions for the PM were strictly verboten; it would be the "real people" in the audience who would probe him. Everyone deserves a holiday, perhaps.

Those who attend regular Brown speeches have come to know by now that the PM is a shameless recycler of stories. And he was soon into he stride. There's the story about how Richard Nixon travelled to Ghana following its independence. He turned to one man and asked him how it felt to be free. "I don't know," said the man, "I'm from Alabama." First time round it's good.

That was the fun bit. After about 25 minutes – as Brown moved from the plight of Burmese civil rights leader Aung San Suu Kyi, to the situation in Africa, to the history of Britain's hospice movement – the audience appeared to be flagging.

"Good Lord, this is boring," said one lady. This wasn't entirely Rankin's fault; Brown has a disconcerting habit, when asked a question, of seizing on a word or a phrase within it which chimes with his own world view and then setting off on a long, rambling discourse on that theme. It made for a rather disjointed conversation.

The rain pounded down outside (getting harder, it seemed, when Brown talked about Scottish independence) acting as a reminder of his trouble at the office. Rankin said he thought Brown's writing style was great. "I've been learning from your novels," replied the PM to the country's foremost writer of gory murder. To David Miliband, et al: beware.