The Untold Podcast
UNTOLD Podcast is where business, family, and life collide—raw, unfiltered, and brutally honest. No fluff, no fake success stories—just real conversations about the highs, the struggles, and everything in between.
The Untold Podcast
Kids, Knives & No Youth Clubs: What’s Going Wrong in the UK?
This week, Ash and Chris get real about parenting fears, knife crime, and why our kids have nowhere to go anymore.
It all starts with a message from a listener: “My kids are 10 and 12, and there’s nothing for them to do around here anymore. Is it like this everywhere?”
From youth clubs being shut down, to schools that feel like prisons, to kids as young as 10 caught with knives—this is a brutally honest conversation about what’s happening across the UK.
We talk:
- The death of youth clubs and safe spaces
- Knife crime stats that’ll shock you
- The pressures parents face in today’s world
- Why community and parenting both matter more than ever
This isn’t about pointing fingers. It’s about asking the tough questions: What’s gone wrong, and what can we actually do about it?
👉 Got a story, dilemma, or opinion? Text or WhatsApp us on 07511 272 459 to get involved.
Hi, I'm.
Speaker 1:Ash and I'm Chris, and welcome to the Untold Podcast did you? Yeah, he keeps slapping me on the tummy and go fat tummy daddy. So yeah, I started fasting on Monday, sunday. And now you're aggy and really hungry, I feel alright today, but I have been fairly aggressive the last three days. I'm not going to lie. It's a good job. Everyone's been out of the house, to be fair.
Speaker 2:How have you been? This week's been like three years long, I think, but then it's gone flown by. So, yeah, what can we?
Speaker 1:do. Eh, I know well, in this week's episode we were going to do something really nice, weren't we? Yeah, we were going to give a Lamborghini away to one lucky listener, yeah, but unfortunately something happened. Yeah, we've had a text message.
Speaker 2:We have, we've had a text message we've got a text.
Speaker 1:We've got a text. Shall I read it? Yeah, go for it, mate.
Speaker 2:Hi lads, I love the podcast. I've got a quick one for you. When we were kids, it felt like every night of the week there was a youth club, football training or something going on. My kids are 10 and 12, and, honestly, there's nothing for them around here anymore. Do you think this is the same across the UK now?
Speaker 1:First time I've listened to that. First time you read that to me. To be fair, it's quite deep, isn't it? Yeah, mate, do you know what the worst thing about being a parent is? Having a kid, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, the worst part yeah, in many, many ways, many ways.
Speaker 1:It's the best part, but also the worst part at the same time, because you just just I mean, I'm stricken with fear at the moment. Cruz is three years old and I'm dreading what the world's going to be like when he's 13, 12, 13, so God knows what it feels like for people now as in you.
Speaker 2:I mean I've got my stepson is 17 next week and I've got two daughters, 11 and 7, and I just worry every single day. I worry about them going to school. I worry about especially my daughter, so she's 12. She is so intelligent and I just worry about.
Speaker 1:She gets that from her mum, I suppose, doesn't she Probably? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I worry about the nastiness that goes on with teenagers, like back in the day. I remember like the only way to talk to people outside of school was they'd come and knock on the door.
Speaker 2:They'd come out to play, or you had MSN Messenger when the internet first came around and you'd be talking to someone, and I used to get bullied on MSN Messenger as a kid, but it was like you could get rid of it because you, your mum, picks up the phone and the internet's dropped. But nowadays, these kids have just got access to everybody at all times. Too easy, isn't it? It's too easy and, like like Steve said in the message, there is nothing for these kids to do. There is nothing for these kids to do.
Speaker 1:There's nothing for these kids to do. Problem is, years ago, as well as a kid from a family, my mum and dad were quite tight when they were together. When we were little, your mum and dad always used to do things for you because they had the spare time. But the way the world is now, you don't have that spare time, so every bit of time a parent has is used to work, to earn money, to pay for those kids to go to school, to get everything they want to get, to get the 270 pound trainers that have gone up from 50 quid from years ago. Do you know what I mean? Like your parents used to do things with you, but there isn't stuff for them to do like you.
Speaker 1:Look at where I live. There there used to be three youth clubs when I was a kid. There's not one now. One of them got torched by a contractor so they could build flats on it. Another one has been turned into a nursing home and I don't know what the other one's doing. I think it's just a derelict building now. Like what do they expect kids?
Speaker 2:to do. I mean, there is nothing. And me and my wife have this conversation Even without the youth clubs. If you want to go somewhere with your kids, even if they're young kids, you've got to have the money to do it. Yes, you can go for a walk in the park, but what seven-year-old wants to just go for a walk through the woods every day? And that's their fun, that's their thing to do, like you go to. I've seen loads of posts over the summer people going to Legoland. Like for a family of four that's probably a free £400 a day out. Some of them are saying they've been on three different rides because they were over letting people in. So even Legoland now. I remember as a kid I used to go to Chessington quite a lot, but that was when you had the vouchers in the paper. As kids growing up we used to jump on the train at 17 years old, 18, and go to Chessington for the day and we could afford to do that. It's just the kids just can't problem is.
Speaker 1:It's like you know, as a parent, you look at other people's kids still, like I mean, I look at other people's children and think, fuck you, now can you not sort your kids out?
Speaker 1:But where they haven't got anything to do, where there's nothing for them, where there's no places for them to go, they just seem to hang around in groups of people that I don't know. It's difficult to say because I don't want to sound like rude to anybody else, but like for me when I look at it. Some of the kids around our area, like where I used to live, used to be really, really nice and now it's not. And you know, you've got kids riding around on motocross bikes and you think to yourself initially yeah, those kids have been bought those motocross bikes by their parents, right, so the parents are to blame. But really the modern world that we're in now I mean I said a minute ago that we're all forced to do so much more than we had to do years ago that you don't have the brainpower for children anymore because they're so much more advanced. They're not kids anymore.
Speaker 2:No, they grow up too quick because of their access to this yeah, social media and everything that they're around, like AI and everything.
Speaker 1:I mean. There was a big thing on the TV yesterday that I watched when I was sitting watching the usual daytime TV when I'm doing twiddling my thumbs, you know and they were talking about is AI acceptable for kids to use to do their GCSE exams and stuff like that? Can they do research and stuff like everything's so accessible that kids don't need to be kids anymore or kids get forced to not be kids, should I say, you know and it's not really anybody's fault other than the world the way the world has evolved and you know, unfortunately it's evolving the horrendously wrong way in certain aspects.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just think I remember growing up and I remember this like I must have been what 15, 16. There was three youth clubs that we could go to. One was a bit of a trek and it was in the village further down where you'd meet a different group of people. Then one was local to us and we used to go there and the people that run in it were wicked. We'd all put in. I can't even remember what it was. It was a very small amount of money.
Speaker 1:It was only £2.50 or something like that.
Speaker 2:All it provided was a safe space for us to go and do something. They taught us music production. Um, we used to watch a film. They'd have a projector there, we'd sit on the sofas and the chairs and that. And I remember once a month we used to be a treat month where he'd put his hand in his own pocket and buy us all a kebab and we'd all sit around and have a kebab, with ping pong tables, pool tables and stuff. Well, that's now a block of flats.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's what I said. They're all gone, aren't they?
Speaker 2:they're all gone. There's nothing for these kids to do.
Speaker 1:It was a safe space as well. I mean, we used to go to youth clubs, but we probably spent about 15 minutes inside and we went up the shop and bought some beers and hid round the corner drinking. Still that hub. Your mum and dad knew where you were. Yeah, you know, like your mates knew where you were going to be.
Speaker 2:And it was safe.
Speaker 1:If there was ever any trouble, people that you were in trouble with, they knew where you were, but because there was an appropriate adult there and well, you know, let's not go down the rabbit hole here but there's no police now. No, that's the difference. No, you know, like even the police used to come to the youth centre, like the youth club where I used to go, probably because there was a few lads there that they knew that they had to go and check up on, but you knew that police would come in at some point during the evening so you couldn't cause loads of trouble. You know you couldn't get nowhere, you had to just be calm and collected and it was a nice place.
Speaker 1:It's hard to make a blame, but as a parent, like I say, I'm so worried, so worried about it, because this has all evolved very quickly, really, hasn't it? You think that social media, internet when did internet come out? It was like early, late 90s. Was it Late 90s, or something like that? Well, I remember at school I was the first claim to fame, I was the first person to have a mobile phone at my secondary school. Only because my mum and dad lived in eastbourne and I was, I was going to school miles away further else and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 1:But, um, since that day, well, I'm 43 now, so I got, I left school 27 years ago. Fucking, that makes me feel well old, jesus, not too detailed. So that is it. But in that 20 let's just say 20 years, in that that 20 years it has evolved so much faster than it did in the 20 years before that, 20 years before that, and I'm so worried about where it's going to be in the next 10 years. So Steve has got a perfectly good point in sending that message in, because it's just something that we should all be really worried about, I think.
Speaker 2:It's something that we're like like do you know what I mean? We all pay. We all pay so much money and we pay council tax and stuff and there's. I just feel I would love. I would love nothing more than to be able to host something. I would love nothing more than to have a safe space for these kids to come and they can learn shit. Because, let's be honest, I feel the education system has a hell of a lot to blame for this. It's archaic, isn't it? Because it's never. It's never got any better. Kids should be taught things that they enjoy. Every single child is different. Yeah, and I've seen this, I've got three kids and they're all completely different.
Speaker 2:Harvey really bad ADHD, really struggled through secondary school. But as soon as he gets into work, as soon as he finds something he enjoys doing, he's like dedicated motherfucker, like you can't stop him. And then he went to college. He went to college early and the tutor in there, they were pally with him. They're like shut up, sit down, dickhead. But you can't get that in the sort of mainstream schools. If you're not, that model pupil like my 12 year old daughter is, you're going to struggle and then they rebel when they get out of it and they don't want to be there. School should be a space where kids can excel, instead of they go there. Oh, you've got to go to school, you've got. Your parents are going to be fined. Your parents are going to court for not going to school, but they're not teaching them life skills you've only got to look at how many kids have been homeschooled now yeah.
Speaker 1:I won't say any names, but somebody I know spoke to the police yesterday or the day before and they were told that the amount of people in the local area that are homeschooled now, compared to what it was five or six years ago, is pretty much quadrupled. Because kids don't feel, first of all, they don't feel safe going to school anymore. Like there's a secondary school that I went to. Somebody that I know got threatened with a knife there and that used to be a really nice school. I mean, there was some scrokes there when I was there.
Speaker 1:I was probably one of them, to be fair, but there were a lot of horrible not horrible, it's a different word isn't it horrible nowadays compared to then? If you were horrible, you were a little shit to put your roller skates on and ask the teacher if you go to the toilet during a lesson and you used to roll a blade up and down the corridors for five minutes until you got caught and then you go back to your classroom. Like now they're going, they're doing drugs at school, they're taking knives to school, they're they're just basically just frightening the crap out of anybody that actually wants to do any good. But there's a reason why they're doing all of that? Yeah, but what is that reason? Why are we getting so frightened for our kids?
Speaker 2:I honestly don't know. I'd love to have the answer. I think it is because they go to school. They have a real shit routine as kids. Now you go to school and you either just sail through school, you're all right, you're that perfect student, or you're not good with rules, you're not good with routine, you're bored as hell. And it's like they say a kid with adhd might be able to sit there and play call of duty for 12 hours, but he can't sit in a classroom because he's enjoying doing that. If you give someone something they enjoy doing, it's less than they enjoy doing.
Speaker 2:I think that I know it's difficult because there's tens and tens of millions of kids in the education system, but it's got to change, it's got to evolve. It's like a prison. Now I went back to my secondary school and I was adamant right, my daughter, you're going to the same school I went to because I think I turned out all right. We went in there and I was like no, you're not going there, it hasn't changed, nothing's changed in there. It's dirty, it's horrible. Literally. It's like sending your kids to, I bet there are prisons.
Speaker 1:I bet it still smelt the same as well, doesn't it? Because you walk in and remember the smell of my school the bogey's still on the wall. Do you know what I mean From you? Nice?
Speaker 2:But I bet there are prisons in the UK that are nicer to be in than schools 100%, yeah, and a lot less strict, probably as well.
Speaker 1:Thing is like and the whole situation with schooling, I think, is wrong now Like where we have labelled so many things very quickly. You get labelled instantly as soon as you walk through the doors of school, don't you? If you've got ADHD, right, adhd, you're naughty because you've got ADHD. You're going to be disruptive in class. You're going to do this, you're going to do that Right, so you can sit by the teacher's desk there, so we can keep an eye on you. Right, you're all there, you'd like.
Speaker 1:I think everybody now is so wrapped up in diagnosing instantly what is wrong with people and telling people what is wrong with them. Right, you're going to be this or you're never going to achieve anything because you've got this or you've got that. Years ago in school, everybody just sat with everyone. You just got on with it. If you were fucking about in class, go and stand outside for 10 minutes and I'll come and speak to you.
Speaker 1:I've got adhd. I reckon I've never been diagnosed with it, but I think I probably have got it. I've got all the symptoms that everybody ever says you need to have it. I've done all the tests online and I was thrown out of every single lesson from year 10 onwards, like I spent a whole year in of english in the headmaster's office, like at my secondary school, and if I was dealt with differently I would have been all right in school.
Speaker 1:I liked school, I liked going to school, I liked the social side of it, but I didn't like the fact that my teachers spoke to me in a way that I felt like I was being little, being being belittled in front of people. Now I'm not blaming the teachers here, because the teachers are strict. You know you've got to teach like this, like this, you've got to do this, you've got to do that. But if we all looked at things a little bit differently and stopped rushing straight away to put everyone in a certain box, I think it would allow kids to feel much more incorporated into the school community.
Speaker 2:You know everyone's banging on about community at the moment, but when you're a kid, you fucking, you're put into one box, that's it, and the problem is as well, you get put into that box like I believe this wholeheartedly you are an average of the five people you spend most of your time with now. If they're putting the, if they're putting all the naughty kids together, they're only going to encourage each other to be naughtier you put the best kids who are the smartest.
Speaker 2:They're all trying to better each other, so they're moving in that way and then the naughty kids are moving that way and the divide is getting so big. I know you can't put that kid in that class because that might stunt their education, but there's got to be a way. And I just feel that the kids they go to school and I can say this from Harvey's 17 and the last three years of school have just been. He doesn't like it. He doesn't like the teachers being talking down to him. Some of the teachers, I hand on my heart, say I'll give them like do you know what I mean? They all deserve a medal for what they do.
Speaker 1:I certainly can be a teacher. I'd be fired within four hours.
Speaker 2:And I get it that some kids are. But Harvey's a good kid, he's a good kid, he was just mixed with the wrong people. But then they get into this rut where I've got to go to school today and then after school they're rebelling against the fact that they've been bored to hell, but then there's nothing for them to do after school. So what do they do? They go and mix with these groups of people Because, let's be honest, without having a shitload of money, just sat there. These school clubs are expensive. It's expensive to send your kid to. I mean, football's not so bad, but even that you need money to be able to do it.
Speaker 2:Harvey's been going to the gym the last two nights. Pure gym it's like nine quid to go into the gym. So he's 17 and he's got to find he's paid 18 quid the last two days to go to the gym. Now we're looking at, we're going to get him a membership if he shows that and we'll get him. But what if you haven't got that money? What if you're a parent and you can't afford 30 quid a month for your kid to go to the gym?
Speaker 1:Because, let's be honest, there's a lot of people who can't.
Speaker 2:And then you've got the boxing gyms and the boxing gyms. I'm sure I might try and get Sean on, who owns a boxing gym in Hayward's Heath. I'm sure he would love and I know he. I'm sure he would love to be able to bring people in and do it for nothing. But he's got bills.
Speaker 1:He's got rent and everything which we're getting more and more and more every year, aren't we, which we're getting more and more every year?
Speaker 2:So these guys with the best will in the world are really struggling to do it yeah.
Speaker 1:I just want to say this is not me about to belittle parents, because there's a lot of really good parents out there that do look after their children, and they do.
Speaker 1:They do still turn into kids that are not particularly liked or nice, or you know the wrong side of the law.
Speaker 1:But I think, as parents, we need to have a little look at ourselves as well, and I think it is important I don't know steve's background or whatever you know anything to do with steve, but, um, it's important that you do have a little think about what it is that you're doing with your kids and the way that you speak to your kids and the way that you bring your kids up, because, like you say, the people you hang around, the people you become. If you're shouting at your kids all the time, if you're treating your kids like shit and you're kicking them out the door because they're doing your head in, or you're talking down to them all the time, if they're getting getting out of school at the same time, then you could be the problem. Yeah, and I'm sorry to say it, but that is a fact there are a lot of parents out there I've seen it in shops, I've seen it in the street that treat their children worse than I would treat somebody that I don't like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and they don't have any time. Why did they have kids? Exactly yeah do you know what I mean and I think as, again, I think people have kids because they know how to play the system.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of it is down to that yeah, but then you know the system needs changing, doesn't it? It does this podcast? This could be about 8 hours long, honestly, because you could go down so many rabbit holes. But it's tough, isn't it? It is really tough. Like I said at the start, the hardest thing about having children is having the children and keeping the children to be the children that you want them to be, because it doesn't matter how hard you try, they can change on the flip of a coin.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I've said to Harvey so many times, I've explained it as like a road, and that you can go too far. You've got to try and get trying to get to your destination. By the time you've gone off the right path. You're so far gone. It's really difficult to pull yourself back in. And you are. I don't care whether it's me now, me at 16, me at seven. You are an average of the people you hang around with. You're going to do things to I don't know, get attention to get like a pat on the back from him. Oh, go on, go and do that. Go and let that teacher's tyres down. God, how dare you mate? And you're like oh, these people really like me? They don't Did you at my school? No, they don't Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:They don't like you, they're using you for their own benefit and I think it's important for kids to understand that and I think mental resilience in especially sort of 14 to 16 year olds, yeah, as they go, but even younger. You go from primary school, you're the top of the school, you're year six, you're, you're big. And then you go oh wow, this is big, four times the amount of pupils here. My daughter's like daddy, I got lost again today 15 minutes. I couldn't find where I was going. She's so shy and timid she wouldn't just knock on the door and say can someone help me, please find this space, and it breaks my heart. But she's got to learn that.
Speaker 1:I remember, even being a naughty kid, I remember when I went, so my mum and dad split up and then they'd done this big sort of oh let's try and get back together and we'll sort life out, and blah blah. They moved all the way to eastbourne and I went to school 37 miles away, I think it was and I basically said, well, if you're splitting up and you want me to come with, you're driving me backwards and forwards to school because I am not moving. So I literally started my first day. I wanted to be with my mates when they went to their schools. Um, and I went to the school and I didn't actually know anybody because all my friends ended up going to a different school.
Speaker 1:So my first day I stood at the school gates absolutely shitting myself and as a very confident 12-year-old boy because I was very confident I was so frightened and I think that one moment of my first day of school really set me up for failure. Because and he's actually a very good friend of mine now still to this day, so I won't say anything bad about him but I met a lad called Dean Stacey at the front gate and me and him became probably the worst two children in year seven. Instantly, what class are you in, mate? And I was like, oh yeah, I'm in 7Q. Oh me too. Well, that was probably the worst conversation that I've ever had, because me and him both turned into right little shits because I was petrified. He was quite happy to be my mate because I was a bit of a joker anyway, so I just played up to it and he became the naughty person as well. We got separated but still tried to be good friends in school and you know it is so hard for kids, like everyone moans about how naughty they are and everything.
Speaker 1:But we've got to remember if you're sitting home with your children and someone's getting ear of this in the background, it's not your fault, kids. Yeah, everything that you do is nothing to do. It's not your fault at all. Is it like it isn't? It's not the children's fault, you're not. It's like a dog. You don't. When you're a dog and you're born, you're not a bad dog, it's the owner. Yeah, it's the way you treat your dog. It's the way you bring your dog up. It's the social group you put your dog in. So like it's not children's fault. That's what we've got to remember. She's a right little cow like, just sit back and have a think.
Speaker 2:It's learnt behaviour. It's learnt behaviour from their they're bringing up their childhood. It could be their parents. It could be their friends they're hanging around with and nobody's perfect mate.
Speaker 1:I've made a lot of mistakes in my life. Do you know what I mean? Like I can see it in my kids as well. But yeah, it's. It's a really tough one, man. I feel very, very sensitive about the whole subject with my kids. To be fair, I do really worry about them. So it's a great, great message from Steve. To be fair, he's got me thinking even more now.
Speaker 2:I worry every time Harvey goes out. We worry because he's he ain't a bad kid, but he's a big kid. And every time something happens, oh, harvey will protect me, get, get him in. So he gets a phone call on it and he'll be there to protect him because he's like he's, a good, loyal kid. Do you know what I mean? And as he's grown up, I'm becoming more and more fond of him because he's turned into a lover. But that wasn't through. Yeah, us giving up. Yeah, that was through school, you've got to go. So if you, that was through school, you've got to go. If you don't go to school, you've got to go to college. If you don't go to college, we've got. I mean, during his exams, me and the wife drove him backwards and forwards to the college.
Speaker 2:It's an hour and a half drive, or if we couldn't do that, we're paying for Ubers to make sure there's no excuses. He's excuses, he's got to go and he's got to get his thing because he sees.
Speaker 1:If he sees the fragility in you, are they not that bothered about me going? Then it's not important for him, is it? So why would I want to go? Why would he want to go to do that? You know, it's a good thing that you do that and he's made some mistakes, and I think it's important.
Speaker 2:If your kid makes mistakes, you've got to not not even punish them for it, you've got to pull them up on it. Why did you do that? Don't be? I remember it turns out I was wrong Not wrong, but at the time I did the right thing and it taught him a valuable lesson. He was having some problems with a kid at school, so he snatched his phone, ran away with it and threw it in. A bush Phone was never found. So I found out about this. We've got the parents on the phone this, that and everything else I made him I took. So I found out about this. We got the parents on the phone this, that and everything else I made him. I took him with his phone, we wiped it and we gave it to the kid. It was a better phone than he had. But you don't take someone's shit and throw it.
Speaker 2:I taught him a lesson hopefully it worked and that was a hard lesson because it ended up costing me money because the phone and everything. But there are people just oh, whatever, don't worry about it, the kid's parents will buy him a new phone. That isn't the yeah they might do, but that's not the principle. It's about responsibility it turns out the other kid was a little shit and like, etc. Etc.
Speaker 1:Still, you still taught still taught your son a valuable lesson. That's the thing.
Speaker 2:He has a bit of respect. He has respect for other people's things. He's 16. We were on a holiday and left him at home. We didn't leave him at home because we had friends staying for a couple of days of it, etc. But we left him home. He's 16. Well, when I was 16, my parents had gone away and left me. I'm having a party. No parties, come back. The house was clean and tidy. It was worse when our friends would say I could never have had a party.
Speaker 1:If I would have had a party, I would have been homeless now they've got ring doorbell back in the day you said about in front of phone.
Speaker 1:Did you see that video? Have you seen the video? That kid at Asda? There's two kids on bikes outside Asda and there must be only 12 13 years of age and they're screaming, screaming swear words every word you could imagine at the staff at Asda and in the doorway, all the customers walking in and out. The dad did a post on social media, grabbed the kid, took him, put him in the car because someone had found out about it, dragged him back to Asda's, made him apologise in the centre of the store in front of everybody, like that kid ain't going to be doing that again. That kid's going to not like that dad for about a week. He's going to get over it, but his brain has been told that if he behaves like that, there's a consequence to every action. Do you know what?
Speaker 2:I mean, and this is the thing, and I want to move on to this because this is sort of yeah, when the message come through, I was like what do we do with this? Where do we go with that? And yesterday a 16-year-old was stabbed and apparently it was over 20 quid and a girl. He was texting.
Speaker 1:Nice.
Speaker 2:Nice, stabbed, killed at the scene, 16. Another life that's gone. But it's not just one life, it's two lives, because the other kid hopefully he'll get banged up, they'll make an example of it. But these kids going around with knives? Back in the day you had a problem with someone, knives. Back in the day you had a problem with someone. You have a fisty cuffs. Yeah, you have a fisty cuffs. It's over with you. Get in a boxing ring, you do? You know what I mean? There was none of this fucking knife crime. The problem is is, even if it's not intentional, you stab someone with a knife. There's a quite a big chance that that's it. Why have you got a?
Speaker 1:knife in the first place. That's got. That's why you got right. You've got to ask yourself why am I leaving my house with a knife in my pocket? Is it because I'm scared for my safety? Is it because I'm hanging around with people that carry drugs and knives? If it's the second one, stop hanging around with those people. However cool you think you are, however fun it is to hang around with people that have got money where you can go to McDonald's and buy whatever you want and do whatever you want all the time. It ain't cool. It ain't cool because everything that happens in your younger life will catch up with you eventually when you're older. If you want to be a decent adult and you want to have nice things and you want to have a family, you want to have loved ones, you want to have people that care for you.
Speaker 2:That's not how you behave too many people being lost to this fucking like, this culture of this youth with knives, like we've had it before, where kiddies on snapchat they've got this fucking zombie knife like this and they're just walking around with it and people know they've got it. You can see it down their fucking trousers. But I mean, when do you see, do you want me to walk through my town? You know there's a police station there.
Speaker 1:You don't see it.
Speaker 2:The doors are locked the one in the one in Haverfield. The doors are locked. You can't go there. You phone them up. Harvey was being chased for someone with a knife. It was being chased for someone with his ADHD he was. He was like I don't care. This kid's chased me back to my house. This is on our doorstep. This kid's got a knife. We can see the knife. He's got it in his thing. He's holding it in his hoodie, like this. He's got a knife. I phone the police. I said, look, this kid's got a knife and he's willing to fucking use it. Well, really sorry, sir, but we haven't got any units about the move. Can you get your son in the house few minute? This kid's come to his home and he's standing outside waving a knife. They turn up an hour and a half later. Yeah, please turn up an hour and a half late. You could be being chased down the road with a kid with a knife.
Speaker 2:It's not the police's fault, it's goes further higher than that, but these if, if they found a kid on the street with a knife, they took the knife away and they banged him up for two years. He's not going to do it again, or he might do. But do you know what I mean? It's just so like I've got a few stats here. This is knife crime and this is just in teenagers. Every year, about 50,000 knife crimes happen in England and Wales. A big chunk of that involves teenagers either carrying, using or being victims. So chunk of that involves teenagers either carrying, using or being victims. So 50 000 knife crime and I bet that ain't accurate that's of course.
Speaker 2:That's yeah, that's been recorded in the last year over 3 200 kids aged 10 to 17 were caught with a knife and ended up with a caution or conviction. It's 20 higher than 10 years ago. That 10 to 17, 17, that's I mean. I'm sorry if you've got a 10 year old leaving your house with a knife you can control that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, when they get to 17, you might not be able where's? What I want to know is where the fuck's a 10 year old going with a knife? Yeah, when my, when my boy at 10 years old with a knife? No, or where he'll need to even think about taking a knife. So this podcast I'm aware this is going to be proper triggering for a lot of people. We're either going to piss a lot of people off or we're going to make people think a bit and understand a few more things, but it's not to trigger people. This podcast, this episode, is not to trigger people. It was literally just to point out a few things. But we're fully aware I'm sure you well, I say we, I'm speaking for you, but I'm sure you are these problems are much deeper rooted. You know it's, it is the government, it is what's happening with. Everything is looked after, policed and financed and everything. We know that. But this is just a little bit of a rather smaller area, isn't it that?
Speaker 2:we're talking about at the moment. But this is like what? For me, as this conversation unfolds, it's like what can we do as parents, what can we do as communities? Because not enough. I'm sorry, but not enough's being done. If I had the money, I would quite happily fund a free space for kids to go, whether they want to learn about AI, whether they want to do boxing, whether they want to get fitter, whether they just want to, I don't know just a space where they can go If they're feeling down and low.
Speaker 2:15, 16, 17-year-olds being bullied at school. They don't understand what we understand. Like you're having a bad day, talk to someone about it, pick up the phone, tell your mate. These 16, 17 year olds can't ring his mate up who's knife welding road man and be like oh man, my mum and dad are about to split up. I'm really fucking sad. It'd be get called a wank. Do you know what I mean? Shut up you pussy hole. Like what are about? I just think and I've said my wife's the same. My wife's the same. She's like I'd love something, I'd love somewhere for them to go. They can go to the gym but, like I said, if you go on a pro-rider basis, it's £10. Each time you want to go to a boxing gym, it's £7-8. Now that doesn't sound like a lot, but you want to do you want to do two, three times a week and there is nothing.
Speaker 2:Where do they go? They go to the skate park, they go to the places. A lot of the kids I'm not saying they're all the same, there will be some wealthy people out there like my kids don't do that. My kids don't do that because we can do this and this and this. They do horse riding, they do after school clubs and they don't need to fill that sort of what would you call it? Yeah, the void of being bought with a boredom, the boredom void. Um, I just feel that not enough's being done.
Speaker 2:I feel that there are a lot of parents to like my kids will not be leaving the house with a knife, yeah, and if someone, if my kids were oh, daddy, he's, uh, yeah, this kiddie at school, he's, yeah, he's got a knife in his bag. I will be telling people yeah, I'm not fucking snitches, get stitches, fuck off mate, I'd rather, I'd rather that knife get taken off that kid who could inflict harm on someone else than do you know? I just don't get it. I just don't like we, we in Britain, we look at the Americans of gun crime in schools, gun crime, mass shootings in schools, but you've got 25 kids walking into that school every day with a kitchen knife in their pocket, in their bag.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at least. Well, maybe that might be a way to go. Maybe we have to put metal detectors in the entrances to schools, so so the kids can't get into schools with knives, but they'll only hide them outside, and just you know, it's a deep-rooted thing that needs sorting out, isn't it? I think it's yeah. Well, how do you?
Speaker 2:get to the bottom of it. How do you get to the? What is it? And I think local communities is a thing, I think local councils is a thing. Yeah, because even in like quiet little towns now it's happening, obviously.
Speaker 1:London is London. I don't. Well, you get. This is the problem, isn't it? You've got London is a big place, but now London is becoming. You've got Greater London and you've got Outer London. Now you're getting Outer Outer London, you know, and one day it will just be the whole of the south-east of England will just basically be London, you know, and you just have all the problems that you've got in there. I mean, if there's anybody listening that lives in London and you've got kids, I do feel very, very sorry for you. Yeah, I must admit, because that is a place that I would not want to live now with children.
Speaker 2:No, I mean it's hard and obviously we don't want this. And there are youth clubs in.
Speaker 1:London to be fair.
Speaker 2:There are youth clubs in london but, like, I remember the guy. I remember the guy that used to do ours. He was a lovely bloke and he was there for us. He was that we didn't have smartphones back then. I'm sure if he was there now, then we'd have a whatsapp chat with him and we'd be able to message him day or night and say, mate, what's, what's going on with this? Like, do you know what I mean? Can you help me with this? Yeah, come and yeah, we'll talk about it next week. At the youth club and kids used to be able to meet up and you'd make new friends as well. Oh, they're learning that and they're doing that. We're playing a bit of ping pong, playing a bit of tennis, and it was a good time. We used to look forward to going to it.
Speaker 1:Whereas, yeah, it's really really tough. I mean if there's anyone listening, that's a multi-millionaire and you fancy opening up a youth club in your local area or doing something for kids somewhere along the line, just fill your boots, because it's needed somewhere, isn't it?
Speaker 2:or everywhere there's so many empty buildings as well at Council Zone. There could be there could. People could do so much more to avoid this. There's a lot of charities, there's a lot of people like doing what they can for this. Yeah, yeah, I'd love to do something, but unfortunately at the moment I don't have the funds to do it but there are people out there that can absolutely. So yeah, shall we wrap that one up, shall we?
Speaker 1:shall we read Steve's comment out one more time, because I feel like we've sort of really gone really off off source there a little bit.
Speaker 2:But it's just the conversation. So Steve said Hi, lads, I love the podcast. I've got a quick one for you. When we were kids, it felt like every night of the week there was a youth club, football training or something going on. My kids are 10 and 12 and, honestly, there is nothing for them around here anymore. Do you think it's just our area, or is it the same everywhere in the UK? Now, right, our area, or is it the same everywhere in the UK.
Speaker 1:Now, right well, now we can give you a categorical answer of no, it isn't just you, it isn't just you, it's everywhere, all over the country, mate.
Speaker 2:It's everywhere and it's yeah, there's more we can do. Yeah, there's more parents fucking. If you know your kid's going out of a knife, pull them to one side, give them a slap, tell that's not happening, because if they take someone's life, then it's theirs as well. Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's not just yours, is it? It's your family's lives as well, because that always sits with your family, doesn't it? Oh, they had that little boy that stabbed that little boy or whatever, or that teenage boy or whatever you know. Yeah, anyway, hopefully that's not been too, debbie Downer, I'm going to go home and check Cruz's bedroom for knives now I think you'll be all right.
Speaker 2:I think you'll be all right, but yeah, no, I hope that's not been too, debbie Downer, but it is something that needs talking about Of course it is, mate.
Speaker 1:Of course it is. It's a shit relevant podcast. It's relevant, isn't it?
Speaker 2:We've got to talk about real life issues, so that was fair, but yeah, well, maybe we'll try and get someone who knows a lot more about it than us and the staff and get them in and talk to them. But yeah, if anybody's got anything to say, any comments or you disagree with us, then call us out on it yeah, not too hard, though I'm quite sensitive guy alright cheers everybody cheers.
Speaker 1:See you next week so it's goodbye from Chris. It's goodbye from Ash. So it's goodbye from Chris, it's goodbye from Ash. And we've been the Untold Podcast, and if you like what you're listening to today, guys, please do like subscribe and share the life out of this podcast so we can get it out to as many people as possible.
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