The train stabbings: Could it have been prevented by stop and search?
The News Agents
Global
4.1 • 5.4K Ratings
🗓️ 3 November 2025
⏱️ 36 minutes
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Summary
The appalling train stabbing on Saturday night has sent politicians scurrying to find the right policy response. The shadow Home Secretary is calling for a dramatic increase in stop and search. Would this yield more arrests? Create a deterrent? Or just create tension and division amongst communities? We talk to Neil Basu, former head of counter terrorism and frequent target of Stop and Search himself.
Later, why is Elon Musk conflating hobbits and rapists in rural England?
You can listen to The Crime Agents special episode on the train stabbings here: https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/episodes/7Drv3Y1/
And Sir Gareth Southgate's interview with The Sports Agents is here: https://www.globalplayer.com/podcasts/episodes/7Drv3Wz/
The News Agents is brought to you by HSBC UK - https://www.hsbc.co.uk/
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is a Global Player original podcast. |
| 0:08.7 | From Global's newthroom at midday, a 32-year-old man has been charged over Saturday's knife attack on a train in Cambridge, Anthony Williams, from Peterborough, is accused of offences, including 10 counts of attempt to murder. |
| 0:21.5 | He's also been charged over a separate knife attack at a DLR station in London earlier that day. |
| 0:26.8 | It's hard to imagine the terror that people must have felt being stuck in a confined train carriage |
| 0:32.4 | and someone produces a knife. |
| 0:35.9 | The person has now been charged and a lot of love is flowing in the direction |
| 0:40.1 | of the train staff who did seem to act heroically. But the political debate is already much, |
| 0:47.8 | much more caustic. And at the heart of it is this question of whether dramatically increasing |
| 0:54.1 | the use of stop and search |
| 0:56.0 | would have stopped the suspect on that train or would just have isolated many young black men in our |
| 1:03.7 | community. Is Chris Phelp, the Shadow Home Secretary, right when he calls for more stop and search, |
| 1:13.2 | or is it just opportunism knocking at the door? Welcome to the newsagents. |
| 1:20.5 | The Newsagents. After the horrific train attack that took place this weekend on a train |
| 1:27.3 | heading towards London, which came to a very swift halt in Huntington, thanks to the quick actions of the train driver and the astonishing heroism of the train guard, or one of the train staff that was on the train. |
| 1:42.8 | A man has appeared in court charged with 11 counts of attempted murder |
| 1:47.3 | following a knife attack on that train in Cambridgeshire. |
| 1:50.5 | Anthony Williams, who's 32, has also been charged with one count of possession of a bladed article |
| 1:55.8 | and one count of actual bodily harm. |
| 1:58.0 | And there is a charge as well that relates to an earlier incident in London |
| 2:03.0 | related to the the light railway network, the DLR, the Docklands Light Railway, that took place in the early |
| 2:10.0 | hours of Saturday morning. That was an entirely separate incident. And there's been obviously a lot of |
| 2:17.2 | reaction to it from politicians, of course, |
... |
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