£500k blade blitz starts here

Russell Steele 1627 - 1627 • Published 20 Jun 2009 14:00

JUSTICE Secretary Kenny MacAskill has declared Inverclyde the place where the Scottish Government"s fightback against knife crime begins in earnest.

Mr MacAskill visited Port Glasgow yesterday to formally launch the £500,000 No Knives, Better Lives campaign.

The project is designed to make young people aware of the dangers and consequences of carrying a knife.

It has already begun through an education project being piloted at St Stephen"s High - as exclusively revealed by the Tele yesterday.

Education experts are leading the programme, drafting ex-offenders, medics, life coaches and drama groups into the school in a move which has proved highly-successful and a hit with pupils and teachers.

The rest of Inverclyde"s secondary schools will be targeted after the summer holidays before the scheme is rolled out across Scotland - meaning Inverclyde is blazing a trail for the rest of the country to follow in the war on knife crime.

At yesterday"s press conference, held in the Boglestone Centre, Mr MacAskill also announced the hard-hitting education programme will be backed up with a huge publicity drive.

It is designed to make youngsters aware of the horrors of knife crime and to change their attitudes to carrying weapons.

Part of the high-profile blitz will see a series of short film clips screened in Greenock"s Waterfront Cinema, specifically aimed at hammering home the anti-blade message for young people.

Mr MacAskill pinpointed the fact knife crime was so prevalent in Inverclyde and the campaigning of John Muir and the Tele as the key factors in the decision to bring the initiative here first.

Mr MacAskill said: 'We are very conscious of the role played by the Telegraph and people like John Muir.

'We all want Inverclyde to be known not for having far too many knife tragedies, but for the positive things in the community, its wonderful vistas and the national and international contribution people from this area have made.

'This is about offering positive alternatives and giving our young folk the chance to be all they can be. I believe prevention and early intervention are the keys to change.

'That"s why our No Knives, Better Lives initiative is designed to spell out the dangers and consequences of knife crime and the risks that come with picking up a knife.'

Yesterday"s event was the culmination of behind-the-scenes work between the Government and its partners, such as Inverclyde Council, to develop the initiative.

Tireless anti-blade campaigner John Muir attended the launch of the scheme along with councillors, the head teacher of St Stephen"s and some of the second-year pupils who have been participating in the programme.

Mr Muir, whose son, Damian, was stabbed to death, said he was pleased the new strategy was aimed at the young people of Inverclyde.

He said: 'I am fully behind this work to engage and educate our young people. They are the adults and parents of the future, so by working with them now we can begin to change the culture of knife carrying that blights too many families and communities.'

Inverclyde Council and the staff at St Stephen"s have also been praised for the way they have thrown their weight behind the programme.

Councillor Robert Moran, who leads the safe sustainable communities committee, told the Tele: 'There is nothing to be gained from carrying a knife.

'At best you could be arrested and fined, or you could find yourself serving a life sentence for murder.

'We need to get the message across that it won"t be tolerated in our society and we must educate people, especially the young, to think twice before carrying a knife.'

Inverclyde"s civic leader, Provost Michael McCormick, said: 'Through the knife crime conference the Tele held we were able to raise a lot of important issues.

'Now we have managed to attract the minister back to Inverclyde again.

'I"m delighted at this programme. Education is the most important thing and it is targeting the most important people - our youngsters.'

St Stephen"s head teacher Stephen Parsons added: 'The response from pupils has been extremely positive.

'We would like to see this scheme rolled out to every school in the west of Scotland.'

THE arrival of the Scottish Government"s flagship anti-blade education drive in Inverclyde is a major victory in the Tele"s campaign against knife crime.

We have been proud to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Inverkip man John Muir since he embarked on his courageous bid to force the Government to get tough on blade carriers following the murder of his son, Damian, in 2007.

The Tele repeatedly highlighted John"s petition for "Damian"s Law" - a new sentencing policy for knife carriers - which eventually attracted more than 15,000 signatures.

We backed and followed Mr Muir all the way to the Scottish Parliament where the public petitions committee heard his case.

Then, at the beginning of this year, we were the only newspaper in Scotland whose editor was invited to a special debate at Holyrood into knife crime.

Tele editor Wendy Metcalfe joined Mr Muir and a variety of agencies and organisations at the debate - but both of them felt that much more could have been achieved.

It was therefore agreed the Tele would take the unprecedented step of arranging and hosting a public summit to discuss ways to tackle the scourge of knife crime - one of the biggest problems facing our community.

The Inverclyde Knife Crime Conference proved a stunning success.

We were inundated with requests for seats at the free event and more than 500 readers packed Greenock Town Hall to hear from - and challenge - the top table of senior legal figures, police officers and medics who joined Mrs Metcalfe, Mr Muir and knife crime victims to lead the three-hour debate.

Three clear demands emerged from that key meeting.

You wanted more consistent sentences from the courts, a hard-hitting anti-knife education drive in our schools and cash to back up the police and council"s pioneering Inverclyde Initiative, which aims to steer local kids away from trouble and make the right lifestyle choices.

We pledged to take your points straight to the heart of the Scottish Government.

The Tele"s dossier from the conference was duly delivered to Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill within weeks, after he accepted the Tele"s invitation to come to Greenock.

As he took delivery of the document, Mr MacAskill said: 'We are happy to see what the Tele is doing. I"m delighted it is driving forward on this issue.'

To make sure the message was delivered loud and clear, we also went back to Holyrood to hand the report to

the Justice and Public Petitions Committee heads Bill Aitken and Frank McAveety.

Now, just a couple of months later, Mr MacAskill has returned to Inverclyde to confirm our schools will blaze a trail for the whole of Scotland in the fight against knife crime - meeting one of the three demands made by our readers.

Since the Tele"s Inverclyde Knife Crime Conference, two of the main political parties at Holyrood - Labour and the Conservatives - have also declared their support for mandatory sentencing for those caught carrying blades.

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This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 20 Jun 09

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