Knife amnesty

This BBC update made me upset.

I've met a lot of people from the UK here, in Cyprus. Also, we have been in England some time ago and saw different people in London, Manchester, Liverpool. What I remember that, although regularly spotting crime news in Daily Telegraph and scaring articles in magazines, I didn't feel insecure over there. More on the contrary. Friendly people, nice places, interesting events... Even Manchester did not made on us as dreadful impression as some articles and blogs might produce.

However it appears that the ordinary life in England has its dark side. .This particular issue is much disturbing for me because our daughter is going to study in the UK in future. We had been at the Manchester University Open Day, saw the Uni and campus crowded with girls and boys - talking, smiling, with nice open faces. It didn't surprise me that Manchester has been voted the coolest place in the UK outside London by a survey of 18-30 year olds and that it's the third smiliest place in the UK. I was smiling over there all the time!

And now I've learnt that most victims and offenders in the Manchester crime statistics are young people, and some clubs have started introducing airport-style knife detectors at their entrances...

This is sad, and I really don't want to start thinking that there might be other palces to go for studying...