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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

WTF is happening in London?!

429 replies

AngeloMysterioso · 06/06/2018 00:15

In the last few days alone, there’s been a stabbing outside Liverpool St station, two moped muggers punched a women to the ground for her handbag and phone, and Michael McIntyre was forced out of his car and had his watch taken off him by another pair who smashed his window in whilst his child was in the back!

Even where I live in a pretty boring zone 4 suburb two teenage boys were stabbed a few streets away last week.

I know it’s never been the safest of cities but it feels like it’s got so much worse in the last year or so. What the hell is happening?

OP posts:
frustratedoldbag · 06/06/2018 12:57

Gin - Spending on luxuries for senior ranks has increased whilst simultaneously cutting front line services. Similar to council CEOs earning more than the PM but having to fire a lollipop lady to balance the books.

UpstartCrow · 06/06/2018 12:58

Industry definitely needed an overhaul and change was inevitable, but Thatchers aim was to destroy the unions. There was a knock on effect in the local communities. They were gutted.
It changed people attitude towards work, we lost the work ethic. What we have now is desperate people in low paid zero hours contracts instead. The culture has changed.

frustratedoldbag · 06/06/2018 13:03

Her aim was to carry out the reforms but they could not be carried out without taking on the unions. Harold Wilson closed more coal mines but Scargill took Thatcher on.

The amount of zero hours contracts are still much smaller than many think. And most in them appreciate the flexibility.

I remember the 3 day week - no electricity, imagine today if there was no electricity at all on a monday and friday? Becuase the miners were on strike, the engineers were on strike and the bin men had come out in sympathy?

I remember bodies unburied, unions having wildcat strikes and flying pickets. The union's power was its downfall.

Tara12 · 06/06/2018 13:04

I have noticed loads more impatient angry road rage events here in outer London. I think we need more Police , I never actually see one unless they are out on manoeuvres.

LanaorAna2 · 06/06/2018 13:12

The sheer visibility of the gap between rich and poor. You don't have to look - it's all you see, staring you in the face, where I live.

The fact that people in big houses who do nothing of social value - law and banking are not exactly philanthropic - are rewarded. So if you're in a tiny flat, why not do something non-valuable and get rewarded too? Before it gets burnt down by the authorities?

musicinthe00ssucks · 06/06/2018 13:16

Okay, so. Have a zero tolerance policy and sling them all in prison. Is that what you want? A US style system where people (overwhelmingly poor and black) are incarcerated in unprecedented numbers, and enslaved by privately run prisons to work for actual pennies an hour and disenfranchised into the bargain? Execution?

Apart from the execution part, I think this is a bloody good idea - sling in National Service while you're at it. Whether is suits your agenda to believe it or not, the courts are too soft on the perpetrators of crime in this country. There is NO fear of consequence and the police can't do their jobs effectively because they do fear reproach. There needs to be some serious punishment and deterrent to the crimes that are currently being committed in London and the wider country.

And please don't accuse me of racism based on your wording of "poor and black". I couldn't care less what colour or creed those that are committing these crimes are - I just want them off our streets.

PrincessCuntsuelaVaginaHammock · 06/06/2018 13:16

The trouble with many youngsters is they don't want to start at the bottom, as if it is below them. They don't want to sweep floors or the do the photocopying or 'serve' anyone.
They don't realise the way to working hard is sometimes having to start at the bottom and work your way up.

Probably because increasingly it's not. And a generation or two ago, there would at least have been a job and some affordable housing available even to people at the bottom. Increasingly there now isn't. Anyone who has started at the bottom and worked their way up started long enough ago that young people had much better options than were available now, not a choice of zero hours or zero hours or faux self-employment.

And the fact is that people often, when presented with their place at the bottom of the order, do rebel. It isn't universal amongst humans by any means, but it's also not sufficiently unusual that anyone should actually be surprised by it. People don't see any incentive to tow the line, so they don't. That's how it is sometimes. Lots of people don't fancy eating shit so they don't.

If you know a bit of British social history this isn't surprising. The postwar decades saw the most equal period in British recorded history, in terms of the gap between richest and poorest, and it also saw some of the biggest strides in respect of the NHS, social housing etc.

A big part of the reason this happened was fear of the revolution. The British working classes were pacified, given an incentive not to overthrow the system, because you could have a steady job and a home and a pension and the NHS. Now that this particular social contract is breaking down, and some people understand they have less to gain from participating in society, of course they're going to be less likely to.

That's not to say there are no other factors, of course there are. But given those that I've outlined, some of this is inevitable. It's just what happens when there's increasing inequality and the rewards for participating dwindle away.

TomMarkle · 06/06/2018 13:20

I agree that crap parenting is a big contributing factor.Where do crap parents come from though?

1997, Labour govt. handouts for all. Sit on your arse, do nothing, no aspiration required.

LanaorAna2 · 06/06/2018 13:22

The courts are soft because the prisons are full.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:24

As someone who grew up in the SE but married and moved to sleepy Wales, I am baffled by the silence coming from your Mayor. I checked out the last 24 hours news including his tweets, not a word from his office. At least here our politicians would make a statement, not to say that would be any use, chocolate teapot springs to mind. Now our police force has had cuts, hasn`t stopped them building edifice after edifice which are unmanned a lot of the time. I really think the police force as a whole is in a wee bit of trouble to be honest.

I really do not know how you could find mopeds, cyclists, hoods up who are having a field day. I can see it fanning out to other areas in the UK, including sleepy hamlets which have many unwary tourists at the moment. You could have a field day in many well heeled resorts.

TomMarkle · 06/06/2018 13:27

Sadiq Kahn is an embarrassment of a mayor.

GardenGeek · 06/06/2018 13:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:31

Well they are blaming middle class cocaine users. Can someone explain to me why someone who sold cocaine to these idiots would also need to take hammers, machetes etc. to drivers, pedestrians? Sorry I have lived in hicksville for the longest time but I would have thought that selling drugs was a more lucrative enterprise.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:33

Tom we have crap parents everywhere, not limited to London in any way.

GardenGeek · 06/06/2018 13:35

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:35

Does anyone think population density has anything to do with it. Here we have huge open spaces, plenty of space within walking distance, strict planning laws. Are we as humans suited to living cheek to jowl?

OVienna · 06/06/2018 13:35

I am wondering if 'the War on Terror' i.e. tracking Muslim extremist groups is sucking up so much of the police resourcing that tracking drugs related gangs/crime has suffered and might explain what we're seeing now.

'Lack of social cohesion' and 'parenting' etc etc. I don't think so. These issues have always existed. I'm not saying it's not a problem but as a previous poster said - it doesn't make people go out and stab someone for crying out loud!

I think that criminal elements have spotted an opportunity to 'grow their business'/exert themselves as attention is elsewhere.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:37

Garden geek the justice secretary blamed it on middle class cocaine users the other day.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/middle-class-cocaine-street-stabbings-responsible-david-gauke-knife-crime-a8371521.html

hibbledibble · 06/06/2018 13:38

I live in central London. I see crime on a daily basis, and do report it, as I think that it is important that it is at least logged. I have very rarely seen any police response to any of my calls.

Police numbers have been cut drastically, and now they only respond if their is an immediate threat to life here in London. The consequence of this is unsurprisingly an increase in crime. Additionally, police have had their stop and search powers cut, which means youth know they can now carry knives and guns without fear of being caught.

Near me there are frequent stabbings and shootings. I have even seen the aftermath on the school run. When your primary aged dc is asking why there is a white sheet on the ground surrounded by police tape it is tragic.

I really want to move out, but my family is here, as is my work.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:41

OVienna, In USA they have a separate unit for terrorism, Homeland Security, should we perhaps separate the police from this type of protection of UK citizens. Hmm

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:42

hibble I cannot begin to comprehend how I would tell my children why the white sheet is on the ground. Heartbreaking.

GardenGeek · 06/06/2018 13:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:44

I see it is quite a time before you vote for a new mayor, however, is it really his job, how much power does a London Mayor have? Ours are ceremonial, cutting ribbons, attending fetes etc.

hibbledibble · 06/06/2018 13:45

Welsh Rightly or wrongly, I didn't tell her. She was only five years old then, and not ready to understand I don't think. She is very clever though, and asked a lot of questions. I just said I didn't know.

welshmist · 06/06/2018 13:48

Hibble I wonder if she and others children hear more at school, rather than what we tell them or read in the media as adults do. You we are warned by the foreign office what holiday countries are risky and how risky, do other countries rate the UK I wonder.

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