Royal Mail - complete ban on bladed items from 22nd April

[Phil Pascoe]

The only two things we've had go missing in the last few years have both been sent via R.M.

I have carried a knife since I was eight - from the age of about eleven I didn't know anyone who didn't, and remember being sent home from cubs/scouts for carrying a blunt one. The only place a knife wasn't carried was in church, and no one got stabbed. Some of my friends had their own shotguns at twelve or thirteen years old and used them unaccompanied with the knowledge of their parents (back in the days when children had two). The world was a different place.

I'd start the ball rolling by hanging the little scrotes who murder ......................... I was going to say with knives, but they're irrelevant really as screwdrivers etc. would be used instead - we'd better ban them at the same time.

 

[deema]

You only need to look at the crime stats to see where the main problem lies. However, politically that’s a ball nobody wants to pick up and run with, so everyone is affected by the reluctance to tackle the problem.

 

[Filament]

You only need to look at the crime stats to see where the main problem lies. However, politically that’s a ball nobody wants to pick up and run with, so everyone is affected by the reluctance to tackle the problem.

You're right and the answer is poverty.
That is the correct answer, but I'll take a stab (pun very much intended) that you were going for a different one

 

[deema]

You're right and the answer is poverty.
That is the correct answer, but I'll take a stab (pun very much intended) that you were going for a different one

I’d never have associated poverty with the need to carry and use a knife as an offensive weapon. That’s not what the crime stats indicate either.

 

[Filament]

I’d never have associated poverty with the need to carry and use a knife as an offensive weapon. That’s not what the crime stats indicate either.

I know you're going with race as being the key stat, but from those I've spoken to who work in this area yes, the knife crime stats for London have higher racial indicators, but the poverty stats also show that people of colour are far more likely to be poor (for a variety of reasons which would take a whole thread in itself) and stopped and searched by the police (again, a whole thread there).
So, taking that into account, you can say its a racial thing because there's more knife crime associated with people of colour and I can reply with that's true, but those people of colour are also poor, so maybe that's the driver of the stat, not the colour of their skin. I might even shout 'correlation isn't causation' a few times to make myself feel better.
We could have this back and forth, ad infinitum because there is nothing which proves either of our statements. Either could be true given the data.

Until you look at Glasgow...
Dubbed by the leftie hand-wringing Daily Mail the 'Knife Crime Capital of Britain' and... 95% white. with most offenders being... white
Those offenders? Generally poor.

The governments own Serious Violence Strategy from 2018 “the evidence on links between serious violence and ethnicity is limited. Once other factors are controlled for, it is not clear from the evidence whether ethnicity is a predictor of offending or victimisation.” https://assets.publishing.service.g...0f0b64fed0afd55/serious-violence-strategy.pdf

 

[Phil Pascoe]

In Glasgow in 2021/22 there were 10 homicides, the latest Scottish Government statistics show ...
In 2021/22 there were 282 homicides involving a knife or other sharp instrument in England and Wales ...

 

[Filament]

In Glasgow in 2021/22 there were 10 homicides, the latest Scottish Government statistics show ...
In 2021/22 there were 282 homicides involving a knife or other sharp instrument in England and Wales ...

Ok. What's your point?

 

[Ollie78]

Its like they don't want money

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Ok. What's your point?

You were tring to make knife murders in Glasgow look worse that knife murders in London (which is often (usually?) caused by young blacks - which is clearly arrant nonsense. A point which you knew already.

 

[awel5h]

In Glasgow in 2021/22 there were 10 homicides, the latest Scottish Government statistics show ...
In 2021/22 there were 282 homicides involving a knife or other sharp instrument in England and Wales ...

population of Glasgow ~ 600,000
Population of England & Wales ~ 59,000,000

So 282 is pretty low by comparison to Glasgow.....

 

[jw00d]

I’ve found Royal Mail and Parcel Force to be good ……. Well compared to Evri when it went wrong with them it was always majorly and trying to get compensation a nightmare

Didn’t realise the change included chisels also just thought it was axes etc

I sell on eBay also around 10 items a week

Looking or a different courier now for axes although Evri seem to be only option

Any suggestions much appreciated a lot of them will not take axes now

I sold a couple of axes last year, sent via UPS with their over 18 signature service, needless to say it added about a fiver to the cost and one buyer emailed to tell me they just dropped it off without signing or ID What a racket!

I've sent chisels and saws via RM before, but had no idea they were included.

 

[Filament]

You were tring to make knife murders in Glasgow look worse that knife murders in London (which is often (usually?) caused by young blacks - which is clearly arrant nonsense. A point which you knew already.

Sorry Phil but I think your stat actually supported my point. Despite the other posters point that Glasgow is a little smaller than the entirety of England and Wales, your numbers are right, but you are missing the fact that you are only quoting 21/22 figures.

If you looked in more detail the figures in earlier times were very different. 40 in Glasgow in 04/05 which was double the national rate (if we're going to compare cities with cities and not cities with countries as you seem to be.)

The numbers you are quoting actually show the success story of lower homicide rates precisely due to Scotland taking an internationally lauded approach to violent crime which recognised that poverty and other social factors are a big cause and addressing them https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-45572691 . Poor white kids were stabbing other poor white kids and stopped stabbing other poor white kids due to (probably 'woke' in some peoples eyes, whatever that means) interventions including youth clubs

Nice use of 'arrant' in your post though.

 

[artie]

I sold a couple of axes last year, sent via UPS with their over 18 signature service, needless to say it added about a fiver to the cost and one buyer emailed to tell me they just dropped it off without signing or ID What a racket!

I've had pocket knives and alcohol delivered many times and not been asked for proof of age or a siggy.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

population of Glasgow ~ 600,000
Population of England & Wales ~ 59,000,000

So 282 is pretty low by comparison to Glasgow.....

Except Glasgow was homicides, not necessarily by knife. There might not even have been be a knife involved, but life is too short to find for me to find out.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've had pocket knives and alcohol delivered many times and not been asked for proof of age or a siggy.

Nor have I - but you'd need to be 95% blind to think I am under 60.

 

[Yojevol]

I'm pretty sure @TRITON is correct. Here is the wording from the link above:-

Sharp objects (excludes: (i) knives prohibited under UK law - see Weapons - and (ii) Bladed items)

UK & International destinations - Allowed in the mail, with packaging guidelines below:
Package appropriately so items present no risk to employees, other postal items or recipients.
Wrap heavy cardboard around sharp edges and points, strong enough to ensure that the contents do not pierce the outer packaging.
Wrap each item with cushioning material and place in a suitable outer container such as a padded envelope.
The sender's name and return address must be clearly visible on the outer packaging.
Tickets and related advertisements for illegal lotteri

Weapons (including Section 5 firearms, CS gas and pepper sprays, flick knives and other knives that are banned under UK laws, tasers and stun guns)

Items that appear to be prohibited weapons may be subject to additional checks and delays.

International - Not allowed in the mail
UK - Not allowed in the mail

 

[Sideways]

One royal mail service is noteworthy. Royal mail special delivery is a service with detailed tracking, a genuine signature on delivery vs all the other post office "tracked" services which can just be left unattended on the doorstep, and importantly insurance cover upto about £5k at an affordable price.
Try getting full value insurance for valuable items from most other carriers and they charge about 10% for it. Not good if you are shipping things worth £1000+

I have avoided parcel farce for years, but appreciate having a good local post master and the local posties making deliveries are a good lot, just as my evri delivery guy was a real star.

 

[deema]

One royal mail service is noteworthy. Royal mail special delivery is a service with detailed tracking, a genuine signature on delivery vs all the other post office "tracked" services which can just be left unattended on the doorstep, and importantly insurance cover upto about £5k at an affordable price.
Try getting full value insurance for valuable items from most other carriers and they charge about 10% for it. Not good if you are shipping things worth £1000+

I have avoided parcel farce for years, but appreciate having a good local post master and the local posties making deliveries are a good lot, just as my evri delivery guy was a real star.

That’s must be why they left two separately delivered parcels recently outside (one on the green bin and the other by the front door) and forged the signature!

 

[niall Y]

The Royal Mail is now just another courier company, albeit one with obligations to the government to deliver letters to all parts of the country. It will sink or swim based on the trading decisions it makes. It has recently floated the idea of a 3 day only, letter service. and now, with this latest announcement, it smacks of them just not wanting to be bothered.

 

[Sideways]

That’s must be why they left two separately delivered parcels recently outside (one on the green bin and the other by the front door) and forged the signature!

I bought a thermal camera that turned out to be defective and had to return it for replacement.
£500 item so I was nervous about it getting lost on the way back to the supplier.
I asked local post office what service they had that could only be handed over in return for a sig. Could not be left unattended and if no-one present, had to be taken back and redelivered.
Special delivery was the only one. I got good tracking, time and gps coordinates, and a scan of the signature. I reckoned that to be a decent service but if the posties are faking signatures then the business is out of control or complicit in a behaviour that will be the death of it. There are too many competitors now, they can't survive as a me too.