How's that "knife control" working out for you, England?

Not very well at all, it seems.

BBC News reports that no less than 19 men were arrested the other day for engaging in a series of melees using "knives, hockey sticks and other weapons" in broad daylight right smack in the middle of Trafalgar Square, one of the must-see places in London for tourists.

Until now, that is.

"Officers are studying recordings from several CCTV and traffic cameras located around the square."

All of that ubiquitous Big Brother-style public surveillance going on in today's Britain didn't do diddly-squat to prevent these violent acts, but weakly only serves to give the cops a small chance to identify the thugs responsible for the mayhem.  We're positive that's of pretty small comfort right about now to the victims.

This is the Nanny-state, we remind everyone, whose benevolent "leaders" concluded that a near-complete ban on the legal ownership of firearms didn't go nearly far enough in accomplishing their ultimate goal of completely disarming the law-abiding populace, so a few years ago they enacted a ban on carrying even small knives in public for self-defense and other lawful purposes, complete with an "amnesty period" for people to turn in contraband blades (these particular brutes must have unfortunately forgotten to hand over theirs).

That insane policy, of course, only ensures that the regular peasants there are utterly defenseless from the criminals such as these who pay no attention at all to such legal prohibitions, as the events of the other day prove without a shadow of a doubt.

Naturally, this being Great Britain and all, every one of the alleged miscreants has now been released on bail, despite at least some of them committing multiple stabbings during the fracas.

The bobbies undoubtedly need that jail space to lock up the poor blokes who unluckily get nailed for possessing a pocket knife in public.