Last night I was the West Ham CLP Executive committee observer at the parliamentary reselection meeting of Forest Gate South branch. There was another unanimous vote in favour of the existing Labour MP Lyn Brown.
However, as I waited for the meeting to end to take the inevitable picture for my blog. There was firstly a very good discussion led by the branch chair Councillor Winston Vaughan about saving a local “after school” club threatened with closure (I use to work in a “after school club” in Edinburgh – the hardest job I ever did in my life - it’s another long story).
Then local Councillor Akbar Chaudhary who is Newham Council Scrutiny Commission Chair brought up the matter that the Commision had been discussing whether secondary schools in Newham should have metal detectors installed to prevent pupils form carrying knives? He said that this had been very controversial amongst Labour Party Councillors and he wanted to know what the opinion of his local Labour Party branch was.
14 year old Paul Erhahon (see his “myspace” site) was murdered and a 15 friend seriously injured last weekend in Leytonstone (just next door to Newham). A 13 and 14 year old (and others) has been charged with his murder. Adam Regis, 15, was stabbed in Plaistow, 17 March ((inside West Ham CLP). There have of course been a “spate” (or just an statistical aberration?) of similar knife related murders elsewhere in Britain
There then followed a really constructive and informed discussions. A social, political and practical issue that touched all of us. It was accepted that this is not a “night or day” question. But a really difficult issue that there is probably no absolute “right” answer. One member who has links to a secondary school which has a very good reputation in Newham put forward the view that teachers fear that this is a real problem since a significant number of pupils are “tooled up”. Is it fashion or is it “self-defence”?
Is it a “media exaggeration”? There is evidence that overall knife crime is reducing. Last month everyone fussed about “gun crime” this month it is “knifes”. Is this to some extent just the generational fear of the young? If you looked at the headlines and substituted the word “hoodies” with “teddy boys” you would find similar press headlines across the ages.
One member who has an historical bent pointed out that after the Second World War there was an alarming amount of violent firearm incidents inside schools. Weapons being relatively widely available at this time. (So is it all about availability?)
What if “airport” style metal detectors were installed? Who would physically search the pupil? Teachers? What would the school do if they found a pupil with a knife or unlawful sharp implements (I’ve seen innocent looking rings which turn into really nasty cutting weapons). Apparently, it is a specific criminal offence to bring a knife into a school. Will, therefore teachers be obliged to report such incidents to the Police (and if not why not?)
I think that the link with crime and deprivation was accepted by everyone however, the fact that everyone present seemed to be genuine working class (who I am pretty confident were not tooled up) tells us more is at stake than purely economics.
This debate is the sort of thing that showed the Labour Party in its best possible light. I am sure that the Councillors present will take on board the contributions by members.
There was no conclusion but my understanding was that a majority of members present would reluctantly support such measures. The most powerful argument expressed was that “of course we could adopt the option of doing nothing….”
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