David Maddox: So who is the minister for knives?

The Scottish Government has put out a press release on a knife crime summit this morning which has raised a few eyebrows.
The content is straight forward enough and the issue is of great importance, talking about the 'No Knives Better Lives' £500,000 initiative to help young people and reduce knife crime.
But it is the minister quoted in the press release - Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill (pictured) - which has rather exposed the SNP.
Not so long ago on January 23 there was another knife crime conference in Holyrood which was set up by the scottish Parliament's Petition Committee in response to a petition by John Muir, 69, whose son Damian was murdered by a knife wielding thug 18 months ago.
But instead of going to this high profile conference, Mr MacAskill decided he would prefer to go on a jolly to Canada to attend some Burns suppers, including one in the famous CN Tower in Toronto.
At the time oppositon parties called for his head, but the party spin doctors on the government payroll were adamant that he was not responsible for knife crime and instead the correct minister - Fergus Ewing, the Minister for Community Safety, attended.
One spin doctor said to me: "These attacks are just complete nonsense. Fergus Ewing has always been the minister taking a lead on knife crime, not Kenny MacAskill."
Not long after the Conservatives did a bit of research on who really was taking the lead on knives. This showed that between them Fergus Ewing and Kenny MacAskill had given 25 written answers dealing with knife crime up to January 23. Of these, 17 (68 per cent) were answered by Mr MacAskill.
And, at that time, of the two Scottish Government press releases available on its website that deal with knife crime, both were issued by Mr MacAskill.
And now it looks like Mr MacAskill is "taking the lead" again.
So is the truth about the incident in January simply that a jolly to Canada was a higher priority to him than knife crime? It will be interesting to see what response we get.