Throughout 2008 we heard a lot about knife crime on the streets both on the news and in the media. The Conservatives said it was rising and out of control The government said it was falling and the Conservatives were misrepresenting the data.

So who is lying?

Well they are both telling the truth in a manner of speaking but that manner of speaking in no way resembles saying what you mean.

Labour explain away the Conservatives assertion that knife crime is on the increase by accusing the Tories of including in their figures things that are simply not knife crime such as people being wounded by having broken or bottles stuck into their bodies or being impaled on iron spikes from old fashioned railings.

Clearly then, at risk of labouring the point, both sides have a point. Such is the magic of statistics.

The Conservatives are correct to say that crimes involving injuring people by stabbing them with sharp pointed things is increasing. Labour are right in claiming that as no actual knives are involved in being glassed or having a spike rammed through your head such attacks are not technically knife crime.

We wonder if the people who are lying in the gutter trying not to bleed to death before an ambulance arrives appreciate such subtleties.

Escalator Crime Escalates

More humour every day from Boggart Blog

Greenteeth Multi Media new feature - Humanitas

Conservative Blogger Iain Dale writes in David Cameron's Saving Graces an analysis of the way Labour have moved to the right of the Conservastives. iain is always worthb reading, pity he's a tory. Meanwhile Billy Bragg says Labour's problems have occurred because they lost touch with their core support as was highlighted in Hazel Blears fears about the effect of immigration policies on the working class vote.