Same again, again

The Scottish Executive's legislative programme is revealed in all its glory in today's Times, thus continuing the tradition whereby the details are selectively leaked by the Executive to favoured journalists. While this is less than respectful to the Parliament which should be told first, nobody seems to care any more. Anyway, here it is:

"The First Minister hopes that the Bills on subjects from education and adoption to crofting and animal welfare will give Labour’s coalition with the Liberal Democrats a new sense of momentum over the next 18 months.
The centrepiece will be legislation reforming aspects of Scotland’s criminal justice system, including a wide-ranging Police Bill that will outline how ministers intend to crack down on the Scottish scourge of knife crime. It will usher in a licensing scheme for the sale of non-domestic knives and similar objects, an increase in the minimum purchasing age from 16 to 18 and a ban on the sale of swords. The penalty for possession of a knife without good reason could be doubled from two to four years. The Scottish Drug Enforcement Agency will be redesigned as a national crime-fighting body.
There will also be the continuation of measures aimed at reducing reoffending and Executive officials have been busy in recent days studying ways of toughening up the bail rules as a
result of the Rory Blackhall murder in Livingston. There is also expected to be measures ending the automatic release of prisoners serving sentences of less than four years.
There will be a Family Law Bill, making divorce easier in Scotland, and an Adoption Bill giving more adoption rights to unmarried and gay couples."

Equally dispiriting is the focus on youth crime. For how many years (decades) have Ministers been generating headlines on the need for more effective policing of the ned culture? And the impact on the real world?