What has happened to the once proud and independent English People?

The BBC website ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/ ) recently reported on a very successful knife amnesty, wherin Britons could turn over pocket knives to the police (similar, in many respects, to the ones we have for Glocks and Colts here in the USA). Apparently, anyone now found carrying a knife around in the UK is considered a potential murderer. What would Winston Churchill have thought of this?