poetry and violence

The UK government has banned a poetry from the GCSE English course because it talks about a loner with knives. This, they argue to to help reduce knife crime in the UK. I agree that knife crime is on the rise here and it is encouraging that people are starting to think about it as a serious issue. It is also very true that the latest stories about knife stabbing and deaths have revolved around adolescents and young adults. This trend is of course very alarming.

What I do not understand of agree with is that poetry leads to people stabbing each other. I wonder if they have got any scientific reason to ban a poem talking about knives, any statistical data to prove that the kids stabbing each other are the ones attending their English class regularly. Some times you just want to slap the people making these rules across the face and ask them to get their act together. Maybe that is a little extreme, but surely they should focus on getting the kids off the streets and into classrooms where they can get a proper education. Why do they focus on small things like these, which as I assume is NOT going to cause a sharp decline in stabbing rates in the UK.

It gives the bureaucrats something to do I guess.