It sounds too absurd to be true, but apparently it is. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s in-depth interview show, As It Happens, had an interview Thursday evening with a British physician who is suggesting a ban in the UK on all knives with pointed blades or blades longer than five centimeters, claiming that no one needs a knife blade longer than that or sharper than that for cooking. Such a ban would save, according to the doctor, maybe 15 or 20 lives each year.
The proposal is, if I recall, going to be published in The Lancet, the UK medical journal. It isn’t on their web site yet, or at least I haven’t found it.
To their credit, Barbara Budd and Mary Lou Finlay interviewed a British chef who said the ban was the silliest thing he’s ever heard, that one does indeed need a long, pointy knife to work properly in the kitchen.
So, lemme guess what happens next: in Blair’s Britain, they’ll compromise, and require onerous licenses for anyone wanting to buy kitchen cutlery. Because gun control has worked so well in the United Kingdom…
5:55 am on May 27, 2005
