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Showing posts from July, 2008

Mark Easton's UK blog

I have added a link today to Mark Easton's excellent blog on the BBC. He looks in detail at social statistics and sociological research about the UK and the policy implications. The latest article is about knife crime and examines whether an apparent (to journalists) surge in stabbings is actually real, and the subtleties of what's happening in different parts of the country. David Cameron, among other politicians, is predictably using this as a campaign message in the Glasgow East by-election. When I grew up in Glasgow hardly a week would go by without someone promising to "chib" you although "coshing" was also popular and doesn't qualify as knife crime. In reality, though, I never saw or heard of anybody being stabbed in 15 years living there. Maybe I was just a bit too middle class, but I think perception is very different from reality in this area. Still it's intriguing to see that the Tories will "make it their mission to repair the broken