Not banning zombie knives and machetes 'failing young people'
Legislation won't be brought in before the general election
A Liverpool anti-knife campaigner says news zombie knives won't be banned before the upcoming election is 'massively failing working class young people'.
The government said in January it would ban dangerous zombie-style knives and machetes to take these weapons off the streets and keep young people safe.
But the legislation won't be passed before parliament dissolves later this week.
Alan Walsh, the founder of 'Real Men Don't Carry Knives' and 'Anfield Boxing Club', said:
"It is a dis-justice to young people isn't it - it's absolutely ridiculous that it's took them so long to do this.
"Why has it took so long anyway? Why wasn't this done? Why are these knives allowed on the streets and why are we allowed to go and purchase these knives?
"Once again it's just a massive failure by the government for working class young people who, let's be honest, knife crime affects more than anyone else.
"Have a look at why they're getting made"
"Never mind bringing out a policy to ban them. Let's have a look at why they're getting made. There's no need for them knives to be made whatsoever. Them knives are made purposely to attract young people and to kill and maim and do serious damage. I don't know anyone who needs to buy a zombie knife.
"So again, it's too late. It's always the horses bolted from the stable. That's the way these governments are. And it's not just this government's been going on for years with other things. But this is ridiculous that it's took this long.
"If a new government does come in, how long is it going to take them to tackle it?
"How many kids have lost their lives over in this country through knife crime? I went to London a long time ago and I spoke to people there. It was when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London around that time and I said to them, we're at war and I said that when you're at war - it sounds very drastic - but I said when you're at war, you need a war cabinet to deal with it.
"And I said knife crime and youth violence needs a war cabinet just to deal with that purposely. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah and I'll be honest with you, I think they thought I was a bit mad, but frontline where because we know more than what they know, but we just haven't got the qualifications.
"This should have been done years ago"
"This is a priority. Why are we talking about it now? This should have been done years ago.
"Throughout the pandemic, the COVID pandemic, you could see we were having a pandemic of knife crime as well. You could see the rise in it.
"I worked in Alder Hey hospital at the time and you could see a rise in violence and stuff like that.
Knife crime is here and it's still here to stay for a long, long time and a lot of great organisation's are doing work, but we've never had support off government. The government have done nothing on this.
"Parents who have lost children to knife crime will be sitting there and they relive the moment every time this government messes up and every time they talk about banning things like that, they relive the moment that their child being killed because this government is an absolute shambles."
The Mayor of London has called the government's failure to ban these weapons a 'betrayal' of the safety of young people and communities.
Sadiq Khan has called on the Home Secretary, James Cleverly, to put an end to the delay in the legislation and bring forward the new law.
London Victims Commissioner Claire Wexman has also lamented the government's 'failure' to follow through with the bill - calling it a 'terrible blow for all who continue to campaign for a better, fairer justice system.'
Mr Walsh added:
"We should be an emergency meeting straight away (after the election), looking at knife crime and youth violence and looking at why, how (and) where we are now with this.
"Why has there been such an explosion in youth violence and stuff like that and what they should do then is looking at the distributions of these things, fining them very heavily. The only thing that these people deal with losing money. Then they need to look at the punishment but on't do this separately. Do it all at once. Look at everything. The big picture.
"I'm sick of seeing young people lose their lives"
"I'm asking for a big thing, I am, but I'm sick of seeing young people lose their lives. I'm sick of seeing young people go to court and stuff like that over it. Sort the lot of it out. It needs to be done. I strongly believe that education's key. Education from a young age is key, we've got to do that, nut that's not the only thing that's going to stop knife crime.
"These people selling these knives do not care about young people's lives. They don't. Otherwise you wouldn't sell them, you wouldn't make them that appealing to a young person.
"The (next) government needs to make this THE major priority. They need to sit down and make this their highest priority.
"There's lots of other things, but at thi moment, we're seeing kids die and we've accepted that. as part and parcel of every day life.
"People in power have accepted it. Now they need to put something in place very quickly."
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said:
"We're putting more police officers on the street, we're making sure they have the powers that they need including stop and search - which Sadiq Khan and the Labour Party opposed - which has allowed police officers to confiscate almost 130,000 knives.
"And we've toughened up sentencing for knife-related crimes."
A week of action earlier this month to reduce and prevent knife crime across Merseyside led to more than 100 knives and dangerous weapons being recovered by police.
100 were handed in - including swords and flick knives - while 13 were seized by officers.