Revellers have covered themselves in paint as celebrations for the Notting Hill Carnival get underway this morning.
The party atmosphere started early today as the two-day extravaganza kicked off in leafy west London with the sounds of drums and carnival music.
The first day of the party, which will take place today and on Bank Holiday Monday, began with revellers celebrating ‘J’ouvert’ – a Caribbean tradition that marks the ‘opening of the day’ and the start of the carnival.
Joyous congregants were seen smiling as they were covered in paint just after sunrise, with one police officer seen getting in on the fun spraying paint on revellers.
The event, which is in it’s 55th year, is set to see up to two million people take to the streets of Notting Hill – the second biggest gathering of its type behind Rio Carnival in Brazil.
Wild horses and all that.
“…with one police officer seen getting in on the fun spraying paint on revellers.”
He’d better not kiss one, though!
I worked the Carnival stabathon for 25 of my 31 years. I hated it but at least at the start of my career we were allowed to arrest people and get stuck in. Not any more.
Withdraw the police and let nature takes its course and there will be plenty of people mourning all those aspiring rappers, footballers and architects who took knives a fashion accessory and came off worse.
I have a question regarding knives Jaded. Being an engineer and generally handy person, I have always carried a Swiss Army Knife. These things are so useful, I use mine every day and can’t imagine how other people manage to function without one. Anyway, I became a little dissatisfied with the quality of the Swiss Victorinox knives and so I pushed the boat out and bought an American Leatherman pocket knife. The blade is only 60mm long but the blade and all the other tools lock in the open position, you have to press a little lever to fold them away. Is the fact that the blade locks an issue with regard to it being legal to carry?
From the Suffolk Constabulary:
“It is illegal to carry any sharply pointed or bladed article in a public place (with the exception of a folding pocket knife, which has a blade that is less than 7.62cm or 3 inches). A lock knife is NOT a folding pocketknife and therefore it is illegal to carry these knives regardless of the length of the blade.”
Consternoon Aftable.
That is what I thought.
I remember how a handful of decades ago Teddy Boys and flick knives were all the rage and the peril of society.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
The police should not police this awful carnival. Let them stab each other and suffer rough justice from the public.
Dr Evil, we’d run out of ambulances and paramedics in hours. And think of all that paint in A&E.
You will just have to be happy with the stabbings that do occur. Don’t be too greedy. If it was a bloodbath you would get jaded and even our incompetent lot would have to do something about it.
I see that the government (and Labour also clamouring to do things) is planning on tackling this problem by making owning “zombie” knives with the intent to go and hurt someone illegal.
About time that brandishing a weapon and attacking someone with it is going to be made a crime…
To Chernyy Drakon. The Govt is doing what it always does which is concentrating on the object and not the use of said object. There’s no point in banning these zombie knives (many of which are already on the banned list) if the law is not going to be properly enforced. It’s not the object that is the problem it is the manner it is being used. Some of these knives might have legitimate uses but they also have illegitimate ones.
Maybe the answer to this problem with knives or at least a partial answer is not to ban specific sorts of knives but have draconian punishments if they are used to either threaten or wound? For example a person could have in their possession a big knife and it’s all legal but threaten someone with it or harm someone with it or use it to intimidate and it’s an instant five year stretch for starters.
I am tending to think that the govt’s announcement about zombie knives is just electioneering and window dressing. It’s going to be hard to control these knives as any half competent metal worker could knock up a knife for someone who had ill intent. I foresee another black market appearing just as there is in illicit firearms.
This jumping up and down about certain knives by the govt is just the govt wanting to look good and look competent and deflect from the reality which is that they are both awful and incompetent.
Our government likes to ban and tax things. It is what they do best. They should get rid of all these bans and use the laws that have been in place for a very long time to imprison people that hurt or kill people no matter what tool is used.
At the moment I don’t think you even serve a full 5 years for killing people so we need a bit of consistency. Crime and Punishment, it isn’t really rocker science but even the basics are beyond our law makers.