What will happen to Col. Mustard in the dining room with the kitchen knife? It is not just Clue aficionados that will be effected by a new reform being proposed in England, pointy kitchen knives may soon be a thing of the past. A group associated with West Middlesex University Hospital is proposing a ban in the British Medical Journal on pointy kitchen knives as unnecessary from a culinary standpoint and downright dangerous from a crime standpoint.
The proponents of the ban insist that the ready availability of pointy kitchen knives are fueling injuries, particularly in cases involving alcohol and drugs where they are used as weapons.
The group interviewed 10 top chefs around England and none of the chefs described pointy knives as essential. They said that they could use small pointed knives instead that threaten a far less serious wound in an attack. There does remain of course the question of the cleaver which resembles a medieval weapon.
The group notes that 24% of 16-year-olds have been shown to carry weapons, primarily knives. I doubt though that those are kids carrying kitchen knives, which leads to the question if other knives like camping knives will also be banned.
One fact that I was not aware of was that the French ordered table and street knives ground smooth in the 17th Century and that blunt kitchen knives were decreed in England in the 18th Century. We have seen a steady stream of kitchen knife attacks like this one where the availability of the knives combines with momentary rage.
For many, the proposal is a continuation of England’s reputation as a growing “nanny state.” We have previously discussed (here and here and here and here) some English laws that do appear to micromanage the choices of adults in that country. Previously we saw how scissors were being regulated at English library in fear of people stabbing each other. This proposal does raise the interesting question of why kitchen knives have to be pointed. I can see an educational campaign to encourage people to move away from the use of such knives, but is a prohibition warranted?
Ironically, the move will be cited by NRA advocates who have long argued that once guns were regulated, advocates would move to control kitchen knives. The argument was treated as absurd but this proposal is now picking up steam inside and outside England.
Putting aside the personal choice issue, there is also the question of what Hollywood will do without the ever present kitchen knife to use in movies like Fatal Attraction. Somehow the blunt butter knife is not going to cut it, even in the hands of a furious Glenn Close. Of course, Gwyneth Paltrow showed how a meat thermometer can be a perfect substitute in A Perfect Murder.
So what do you think? Is it time to disarm Col. Mustard . . . or if we outlaw kitchen knives, will only outlaws be able to chop and mince effectively?
Source: BBC
Much ado over nothing.
Jude,
Well, someone needs to tell that to a Wikipedia editor:
“Suspects
There are 11 suspects in Clue Suspects, listed below. These include the original six suspects from the game of Clue (marked with an asterisk), plus five additional ones.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clue_Suspects
“Dagger (knife in North American editions, each represented by a respective depiction)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluedo”
Colonel Mustard appears to have survived the cut. No pun intended. (:
So there you have it:
Colonel Mustard with the dagger (knife in N.A.)… on the Turley blog.
I use the point of the knife to open packages… Don’t know about anybody else. It comes in handy.
Also, so to poke into some fruits and vegetables before slicing.
There is no more Colonel Mustard. The newest version of Clue has changed several weapons, several rooms and the names. I believe Colonel Mustard is now simply _guy’s name_ Mustard, and he’s an athlete, I believe.
But on this topic, wow, how stupid… Pointy knives? Really?
lol, bigfatmike.
Using knives as weapons!?
Careful examination of statistically significant sample of kitchen knives demonstrates that in addition to the dangerous point, they also have an even more dangerous sharp edge.
If you care about his sort of thing, it behooves you to demand that the sharp edge be ground flat as well.
Excuse me but I am cooking a roast tonight and I need to try my best to cut it with a very thin metal rod I found in the knife rack.
Dredd, LOL!!! The Brits don’t know how to cook so why would they need knives?
They need them to cut off the head of Kings and Queens like my ancestors did, but I guess the ones who did that have all left not so Merry England centuries ago. Maybe I should move there and carry on the family tradition.
Next thing you know, by the logic some lawmakers use, they may want to ban ice cream. Dr. Ionica Smeets of the Netherlands explains in a TED talk.
Next: pencils, pens, knitting needles, pointed sticks, anything used in gardening, dental instruments, screwdrivers………….Never mind non-pointy things
Never doubt human ingenuity. When authorities in UK banned from stadiums anything that could be construed as a weapon to control soccer violence, the hooligans invented a way that you can fold newspaper into a hard and heavy club that they used to attack the opposition.
I heard about this movement 5 years ago, I thought it absurd back then and thought it had stabbed itself with its overreach. I guess I thought wrong.
This is a symptom of a extremist pathological groupthink.
There is a phenomenon in the mind, that is emergent when a person concludes that some principle is absolutely true in some limited context, then it must be true in all contexts.
So, in this example, pointy knives are bad in some circumstances, blunting pointy knives is good, conclusion: blunting all pointy knives for everyone is all good for everyone.
This was nine years ago apparently. Does anyone know if it was actually acted upon?
“They will have to pry my pointy kitchen knives from my cold dead hands.” – Charlton Headstone
If I am ever in need of medical attention in the UK, I will make sure that I avoid that so called hospital that only uses butter knives for their surgeons. Or maybe they have all their surgical knives registered with the government to ensure that no unauthorized person gets hold of one. Fortunately, this is only a fringe group that thinks that we need more laws to provide for public safety to an absurd degree.
As I pointed out once before, just see what happened to smoking. First it was no smoking areas, then it went to complete bans. Now some places are outlawing smoking in ones home and car. So the NRA fear is not paranoia at all. One has to use common sense in our laws and set limits, but unfortunately legislators are not prone to such things since demagogy is a surefire way to get headlines and votes. I do think that background checks for ALL gun purchases is a common sense measure that we do need.
Poor Alfred Hitchcock must be spinning in his grave. If Pycho did not generate a ban on knives, I don’t think that this group will be any more successful.
I thought the English got over that with the repeal of the Act of Proscription (19 Geo. 2, c. 39) in 1782. The Act was passed shortly after the battle of Culloden Moor in April 1746, Scots were not allowed to have pointy knives…..or bagpipes. Those were considered “weapons of war” as well.
And what Catullus said. How do they expect one to open a child proof medicine package with its nearly indestructible Mylar cover, which seems to be glued down with Super Glue?
So the British will now need a special tool for making small holes in roasts to insert garlic (or whatever). What’s next, mandate that we all must wear only paper gowns in case we feel like hanging ourselves?
And, as my mommy used to say, “You could poke an eye out, if you’re not careful!”
I am not giving up my knives either…..
“… and only criminals will have pointy kitchen knives …” – National Knife Association (NKA)
Every try to open a foil-sealed pack of medication with a butter knife?
Wondering if in the rush to make us all safe, we are polluting the gene pool with undesirables that would normally die off due to sheer stupidity and bad luck, thereby passing inferior genes down the human chain of life. Survival of the fittest allowing for the best adapted mutation to carry on may give way to survival of all and ruin any chance for us to look like David McCcallum in the Outer Limits episode, “The Sixth Finger”:
Who thinks that the NRA may have funded this “study”? Good grief. In a country where employers are forcing workers to accept “no hour” contracts, this is what some people are worried about and studying. Misplaced effort.