Great Western Coffee Shop

The possession of certain items which many regarded as offensive weapons is now prohibited ... and others such as certain ceremonial or historic pieces must now be kept in private.  I don't think we have many members who have habitually carried swords with them on trains ... but for that tiny minority who do, may I point you to the compensation scheme (here) (https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/942563/2020_12_08_Guidance_for_surrender_and_making_a_claim.pdf) which offers you GBP for a knuckle duster, GBP 20 for a telescopic truncheon and GBP 15 for a curved sword ...

Right now I'd give 2 quid for my dagger shaped letter opener.   Was here yesterday and now can't find it at all!!

I believe metal hair combs were outlawed at the same time as knuckle dusters. Apparently used to be sharpened to leave a nasty mark on people.

That reminds me of when in 1985 I was flying from Edinburgh to Heathrow with a group of others from my RN ship. One of the party was our First Lieutenant who was attending a wedding that weekend. He actually got as far as the aircraft door carrying his (very expensive) dress uniform sword !! After a discussion with the cabin crew they took it from him and put it in the crew coats locker. He was back on board on Monday I so presume he didn't have too much bother coming back with it either. I don't think he would surrender that for 15 quid !!   It was certainly not uncommon to see swords being carried on trains.
I suppose back in those (g)olden days people still possessed common sense.....

A few years earlier in 1962/3/4 I was a member of the college shooting club. Once a week we used to collect our 0.22 Martini target rifles from the college armoury, a couple of steel boxes of ammunition, targets and so on and take the 137 bus from Battersea Park Road to Sloane Square and walk to the Duke of York Barracks in the Kings Road with the guns over our shoulders.

The same on the way back a couple of hours later.

Nobody batted an eyelid...

I keep all my keys on my Swiss Army Knife and take it anywhere apart from if I take a flight, then it's strictly just a loose door key.

It's become a bit of a problem over the last few years when wearing ones Kilt in public.
The usual wearing of the skean duh tends to be frowned upon.

You can buy what look to me like knuckle dusters from amazon and from fleabay, generally called "hand grips for go-pro cameras" or some other harmless sounding item.
amazon regularly sell pepper spray which has been illegal in the UK for as long as I can remember.
Baseball bats are actually sold as "self defence equipment" by some on line suppliers without even any pretence of sporting use.
Some otherwise sensible websites have adverts that say [your location] police recomend always to carry this new self defence tool" with a link to an  illegal stun gun or pepper spray, or a flick knife concealed in a fake cellphone.

Also readily available on line are "Asps" or extenable batons, which AFAIK are illegal to carry in public the UK, and MAY be iellegal to posses. "extenable outdoor tool" or even "extenable flag pole"  are a couple of the more inventive descriptions. Asp is in fact a trade mark, but the term is often applied to any make of etendable baton.

You can do some nasty damage with a Port bottle and a crystal ball too!!!  ;)

Indeed, but I never have. I am not a violent person and consider violence very much a last resort. Some of the youth these days seem to regard "a good punch up" as being part of a night out.

A small part of the youth these days regard a punch up as part of a night out, as do a small part of the not-youth. That has long been the case and in fact rates of violent crime not just in the UK but worldwide seem to be declining. One theory is that this is a positive result of the removal of lead from petrol. It was way back in the 70s when pop stars like Elton John, The Jam and Thin Lizzy sang lyrics such as 'Saturday night's alright for fighting', 'lights going out and a kick in the balls, that's entertainment' and 'if the boys wanna fight, you gotta let them'. The 70s and 80s were the heyday of football violence, and the organised hooligan squads (such as The Intercity Firm... ) seem to have disbanded. So I really don't think it's fair to blame 'the youth these days'.

I think that the problem these days is that the youth have ready access to weapons and/or are more willing to use weapons. A fist fight CAN be fatal, but usually is not, a knife fight is often fatal.

Drugs gangs have ready access to firearms and regularly use them. As they say in Peckham "eats (peri peri chicken), shoots (a rival), and leaves.

It's actually not restricted to a night out, it goes on all day.

Knife crime is at a record high - sticking a blade in someone is not seen as a particularly big deal in some areas - pretty much the equivalent of a left hook.

As a pal of mine who recently retired from the Police commented to me "when we're called out to a fight and it's just two blokes in a pub car park going at it it's like a breath of fresh air"

...........tends to be encouraged by drill/gangsta rap "music" these days rather than the type of bands you mention, in the case of the Jam at least the lyrics were intended to be ironic.

Oh and the football hooligans are still there, just older and under the radar these days.

I'd say there's a difference between gang wars and drunken punch ups on a night out. The former is targeted (though bystanders are often hit as well) and purposeful; a war rather than a fight. The Offensive Weapons Act is probably partly at gang wars but also at terrorism.

Can't be! It's all the youth!

Just remembered a very old example of drunken violence. One the wall of what must have been a bar in Pompeii, there is a sort of cartoon, complete with speech bubbles, depicting the landlord throwing out two men (age unclear) fighting over a game of dice.

The situation is not being helped by social media. Every time I look at Facebook my feed has clips from violant films. Most are modern day American cowboy films. The only difference is instead of horses they drive pickup trucks and Harley's. Of course these days the women join in the fight as well.

Agreed. Some social media is absolutely poisonous and too easy to hide behind.

A lot of today's computer games don't help either.