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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not feel safe in London...and near London..?

95 replies

moumoute · 16/01/2017 22:43

Ok, see, I am scared now. I lived 9 years in London, moved abroad for 3 years. I would like to move back to the UK but I am scared! Being abroad I have started to look at the newspapers including the shitpapers so I see a LOT of crime, in London, near London and actually everywhere in Britain. Am I paranoid now? It seems wrong to move back and raise children in a village near London as I find crimes history everywhere....

OP posts:
Chippednailvarnishing · 16/01/2017 23:19

You're right OP.

Best stay where you are.

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:21

user1471548375 Ok! Yes...I live in the safest part of the capital. Maybe that's why I feel like that.

OP posts:
JassyRadlett · 16/01/2017 23:21

Where on earth are you getting your stats from?

Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:23

AutoFillContact65 Haha. Really I can take that roast chicken!

OP posts:
Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:24

JassyRadlett The internet I suppose!

OP posts:
Original poster
moumoute · 16/01/2017 23:25

MajesticWhine thieves, ok. I am scared of knifes.

OP posts:
bellie710 · 16/01/2017 23:25

We lived in London for 10 years and I always felt safe, we only left when our kids started school as state schools in our area were awful!

olderthanyouthink · 16/01/2017 23:27

YANBU.... ish

I lived in London in arguably the shittiest borough for the first 19 years of my life. My next door neighbour was a drug dealer and over the road a house and the ones either side went up in flames because they were growing weed in the loft. BUT it was home and I almost always felt safe there.

Then my parents moved us to the country/seaside, where doors, cars, motorcycles, bikes etc can be & are left unlocked. I lived there for 1.5 years still working in london but in areas not nearly as dodgy as where I grew up.

Now I'm back I London, not where I grew up, and it feels relatively unsafe. I'll probably get used to it.

Manumission · 16/01/2017 23:28

What type of crime are you worried about?

icy121 · 16/01/2017 23:28

moumoute I found the area around Oslo station very horrible and unsafe feeling last time I wenttbh.... Stay in Norge anyway, better quality of life. And broadband speed.

JassyRadlett · 16/01/2017 23:29

Which bit? I can't for the life of me figure out where you're getting your 'a murder a day' from. If you're worried, why not look at the actual statistics - which show that, allowing for annual fluctuations, London is safer than 10 years ago with regard to crime and in particular violent crime which peaked around 2005.

Cakingbad · 16/01/2017 23:32

Knifes are scary but if you're not in a gang you're not a likely target.

Anyway, aren't Sweden, Denmark and Norway awash with killers? And Norway had a boy band called A-ha. Their haircuts were criminal.

GabsAlot · 16/01/2017 23:38

the only thing you wouldnt bu about is the prices horrendous

id rather walk round london at night then where i live in essex that says everything

DJBaggySmalls · 16/01/2017 23:40

You're not a victim of the tabloid press, stop reading them. They dont report it when no crimes happen.

Crumbs1 · 16/01/2017 23:41

Village an hour by train from London.
Crimes that happen - or behaviour seen as criminal includes :

  • someone pinned a cycle race direction arrow to the well
  • someone was seen driving in a white van after 6pm
  • Misty the cat has killed three birds this week
  • the council are refusing to accept responsibility for the disused telephone box.

Pretty safe here.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 16/01/2017 23:43

Well I left 10 years ago after living in London for 20+ years and we really noticed and increase in crime within the last 5 years of living there.

We moved to the country and there's just loads of burglaries here,I mean LOADS.

Not sure what my point is,just musing...

38cody · 16/01/2017 23:45

Yes - we all live here because we like to put our kids at risk. You clearly care about yours - best stay where you are. x

NotCitrus · 16/01/2017 23:47

When I was about 18 I worried about the number of murders and other crimes on TV and the news.
Then I realised that for each one, they would report the original crime, then when there was an arrest, then a charge, then about 6 months later the court case, a few weeks later the verdict, and then the sentencing. So it looked like five or more terrible events but was only one. Now we get newspapers reporting terrible crimes from around the world if it's a slow news day.

Equally when I moved to Brixton and the Standard helpfully did a spread on the 50 knife crimes along Brixton Road that year (with my new flat in the middle), closer reading showed that every single victim knew their attacker, and all but one had committed knife crime themselves. I don't hang out with knife-carrying criminals so I'm fine. There are actually drug dealers across the road, who make decent neighbours as when anyone has a loud party you can guarantee it's not them!

When I lived in Norway the teenagers were so bored they all started taking drugs. At least in London there are alternatives!

MarmaladeWithToast · 16/01/2017 23:58

I once knew someone who sent their daughter from small town USA to London because it was so much safer.

Honestly, I've lived in London since I started uni about 25 years ago, and nothing's every happened. I did get my bag stolen once when I was in the pub, but I think that's not bad for 25 years.

Lucy7400 · 16/01/2017 23:59

I live in London and have been a victim of crime over the years. Burgled and car radio theft (several times). But thats it and I suspect this goes on everywhere. In fact,.the farm I grew up on was burgled regularly.

Original poster
moumoute · 17/01/2017 00:01

bellie710 what's wrong with the schools? Bad teachers or bad kids?
olderthanyouthink where? :) 'country/seaside, where doors... left unlocked. '
Manumission knife&rape&cars
icy121 no BBC tho
JassyRadlett The evening standard.
Cakingbad mmh 37yrs old woman stabbed at home by a guy in front of her kids, 8yrs girl stabbed by a 15yrs old girl. Fresh from today and yesterday. Songs were good though so we can accept the mullet!;)
GabsAlot How far in Essex?
DJBaggySmalls I should.
Crumbs1 Where? Ok some people would say London is safer according to this thread...
DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen Robbery is ok if nobody gets hurt!
38cody I don't have kids yet...
NotCitrus Yes, they do recycle stories...Have you left Norway for good?

OP posts:
tumtetumtetumtetum · 17/01/2017 00:03

DH is half Norwegian. Its very pretty but I'd feel pretty murderous if I had to live there all the time. How have you managed to live there as an outsider? DH has never been 100% forgiven by his childhood friends for marrying me and not just having a fling and going back to marry the girl he met when he was 3!

Bunnyfuller · 17/01/2017 00:04

brasty

Recorded crime is falling. Parameters on what will be crimed are what has actually changed.

MarmaladeWithToast · 17/01/2017 00:05

I found this - murder rates in the London (2009 so slightly out of date) were slightly higher than Oslo at 1.6 vs 1.2 per 100,000 people, but if you see that against some of the highest (eg.Venezuala - 122!) it really isn't a huge difference. link

tumtetumtetumtetum · 17/01/2017 00:09

Oh ffs have a new name for another thread and now outed myself. Hopefully lots of people with Norwegian DH's on here. And I didn't even answer the question. YABU. London remains the greatest city in the world and I certainly am not tripping over bodies and dodging bullets on the way to work. I live in a non naice area with 3 DC. Main thing that irks me is swearing on the buses.

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