WTF is happening in London?!

[AngeloMysterioso]

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?

Crime was common in the past but defending oneself with force was also common, to the extent that carrying a privately owned firearm wasn’t unheard of. That’s changed. Hit someone in defence and police assume it’s equally everyone’s fault and don’t do anything, or arrest you. Plenty wrong but police understanding of the general populous’ desire to be peaceful is gone. Now they arrest first and give you a hard time. Makes applying for visas interesting.

But Gin, that option is not available for people living at home in London with family, and thresholds that must not be crossed or that family loses their benefits. Young adults from elsewhere making their own way unencumbered in the city have more options.

The average teen in search of a job needs a certain amount of personal resources in order to go abroad - money for travel, accommodation set up, often with compatriots, maybe a network of potential employers, someone who can show them the ropes. The Irish have that, and so do the Poles. Not so much the British as far as I can see.

Gin That's what I've had to do....left the UK for Australia simply for economic reasons.

I think it will happen more and more in the UK. It's been part of life for many poor countries now for a very long time....kids leave to work abroad...send money home.

And yes...I have sent money home. Just as Chinese labourers do...or Polish cleaners.

The UK simply doesn't support the working classes any longer.

And when I say "support" I don't mean benefits. I mean work and general quality of life.