Steve Crook

I live in London (near Wimbledon). I usually leave my car outside on the road. I only use it 2 or 3 times a week and when I went out to it recently after not having used it for quite a few days I found I'd left it unlocked.

It was obviously unlocked to anyone who had looked at it, you can see when the door-lock buttons are raised up. But nobody stole it, nobody even stole the radio.

That's in a borough with a population of 194,700 in a city with a population of 12 to 14 million (Greater London). It's not hidden away in a back street either, it's on a reasonably busy road with a lot of people that would have walked past it while it was unlocked.

I like living here

Steve

Steve Crook

Anywhere can be like that, and many places are.

I went into "town" to do a bit of shopping a little while ago. There's a triangular traffic island in front of the library and there were some teenagers mucking about and making a lot of noise, as teenagers do. A mixed group, boys and girls.

I saw a local man who is blind come out of the library, tapping his way with his cane. He went onto the traffic island and waited to cross the road.

Then one of the teenagers left the others and went to help him. Not even one of the girls (which would have been less surprising), but one of the boys.

Polite behaviour and simple good deeds like that don't get reported, but there's a lot of it about.

Steve

Wolfgang

But is slight economic prosperity really worth over-population, no-go ghettoes, and soaring crime rates? In Switzerland for instance, immigrants comprise 20% of its population and undertake 85% of all rapes and over half of all murders!

DB7

Aye, The Krays, Notting Hill riots, Enoch Powell''s "Rivers of Blood", bananas thrown at black footballers; it's so much worse today.

BristolUK

That's interesting and I'm glad you're happy. But be honest....did you think you were lucky the car or radio was still there? Bet you did. That's, perhaps, the difference.

You mean the little black buttons? That you only know are sticking up when you've seen the down position they are in when locked so as to make comparison? (because it's your own car and you know it)
I have mistaken whether they were up or down many a time in an unknown car.


That's not something you'd generally notice, though, simply walking past a car. You'd have to specifically look there or have some reason to look.

There's a big difference between that and one's attention being drawn to a parked car because the window is open - and then seeing the keys just dangling there because something made you look.

BristolUK

I thought we were talking about children being killed and you're comparing a speech made by a lunatic.

BristolUK

I wouldn't expect it to get reported.

I could retell a story that happened to a friend of mine. A beggar asked for some cash. She gave him some money and walked away dropping a £2 coin without noticing. He picked it up, went after her and returned it.

But that's not the usual story is it. Far more common is buying the Big Issue from a seller when they have only one left. And they tell you it's the only one they have left (or they don't have change from a fiver) and they're still a bit short of money for a bed for the night (and that's not true where there are shelters anyway) and can they keep it to sell again later.....and then you notice they don't have Big Issue ID and they're conning you.

DB7

Moor Murderers etc etc. The past is littered with horrible events.

If you think 2007 UK is worse than 80s economic meltdown and poll tax riots or the 70s winter of discontent and power cuts you have seriously lost your grip on reality.

Ideally I'd like us to get out of Iraq (tho mainland terrorism is nothing new), curb gun crime and narrow the gap between rich and poor I'd be happy enough. But other countries aren't without their own problems.

BristolUK

Anyone would think racism has disappeared.

marker

I think its worse now than years ago

Cheers Marker

DB7

According to the Iranians it's alive and kicking in erm Canada.

BristolUK

Yes the past is littered with horrible things. I have not said they weren't.

You'd do better to read what I have actually said instead of seizing on a couple of words and wrongly assuming I'm a "bring back National Service or hang 'em" retired Colonel signing myself as "Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells."

You've ignored the part where I said "as distinct from other crimes (against kids) that have always existed."

Civil Disobedience is as old as the hills, just like crimes such as the Moors Murders.

Shooting a child on a bike and a mob knifing kids on the street or shooting them in the local chippy....these are not so old. And they happen more often now than ten years ago, or even further back.

BristolUK

Ooooh how clever. Let's have a dig at the country from which this person is posting.

DB7

I've no idea about the 'chippy'. If you must talk of crime please get your facts right; the person on a bike was not the victim but the suspect, and the poor kid murdered was caught in the crossfire and not the intended target.

christoph404

A contributing factor to much of the unrest and sense of foreboding in present day UK society I think has a lot to do with the divide beween "rich and poor" Alarmingly that divide is becoming larger and larger and recent academic research has stated that the divide is bigger than it ever has been in the history of the UK and that a restless and resentfull underclass is being formed and getting larger each year with very little prospect of them clawing their way out their situation.It creates a divide and a them and us attitude which is apparent in this debate, the "haves" in our society are generally unsympathetic towards the "have nots" and vice versa. I think DB7 makes a good point in his desire for a reduction in that gap between rich and poor,it would make sense to me but I cannot see that happening in the UK. Are people in general becoming more selfish, greedy and uncaring? I don't know but while I agree each decade has its fair share of crime and so on I do believe a sense of hoplesness or point of no return is creeping into the phsyche of our society.