AIBU to think we are edging worryingly close to anarchy?

[Noras]

Am I unreasonable to believe that we are 2 or 3 steps away from anarchy?

Just that really. We see endless footage of quite aggressive and in the open. Shop lifting. People seem to have no shame eg driving over parkland or chucking rubbish out of car windows. Kids ran amok in Cornwall. People decide to live in caravans anywhere and just poo in parkland. Fly tipping is rife.
People freely wal: around the streets under the influence of drugs. People go to upmarket gyms with ankle tags and no sense of shame. People are more abusive and rude.

No, i dont agree at all. In my experience most people are mostly ok. Perhaps stop focusing on only the negative

2 steps to anarchy feels like a bit of a stretch. This feels like when people say London is lawless and a no-go zone. I think there will always have been the kinds of societal issues you describe but perception of them has increased because of social media.

If anyone wants to be reassured about the future of our country watch Race Around the World. There are 3 teams of young people. All brilliant people and so reassuring about the youth of today.

Where I live we need change. To put it simply, the peasants (us lot) are going to revolt. Stamers policies have destroyed our local towns and immigration and the NMW rises have reduced jobs. It’s a simmering cauldron about to bubble over. The white working classes of the north are the most misunderstood group in the country.

Yes.

It’s official Green Party policy too, isn’t it? And we’re told in Polls how well the Greens are doing.

Personally, I don’t see how ceasing to have the option of imprisoning thieves and burglars will help …. Nor how the lives of the normal law abiding and their kids will be improved by the legalisation of all drugs and prostitution with drug pushers, people shooting up and prostitutes ion every corner…. But maybe that’s just me!!

I've been reading about that poor boy stabbed in primrose hill ,the grandson of film makers.

Moments before he was arranging to meet a friend to write in Soho.

That leads me to believe it's almost.anarchy along with all the other massive issues for our young people.

Quite, and apparently cornwall is lawless too now, not jus London. Soon we will have nowhere that is safe

Crime has always existed, it’s not a new thing … if you want “lawless” go back to London in the 1800s, patches of it then were truly lawless.
There have always been shoplifting gangs. Murders, violent criminal … it’s just that now you see it in SM.

For the vast majority of us, we won’t be touched by it. Most people are nice, law abiding people.. but they don’t make the news.

I think if a Co-op was constantly under siege, it would have made the news.

Do you know what a siege is? Have you confused it with something else?

I’m in Ireland and from what I have seen this last week here, I agree with you!

I haven't driven for years but as a pedestrian who is out and about on the streets everyday I do observe drivers behaviour

I don't see so many hand-held mobiles but waiting to cross at junctions it's obvious that many drivers are having hands-free conversations or looking at screens and they are just not concentrating! In slow-moving traffic they don't 'jump' the lights just serenely glide though the red light totally oblivious that it's red, and often then find themselves caught in the yellow box

I do think there is an element of where you live affecting your experience and therefore understanding. If I stayed nearby my village in mid-Wiltshire everything seems lovely. However there are problems but they become hidden. The nice monthly litter pickers hiding the fact others are not respecting the streets, the supermarket not advertising the extent of shoplifting, old people stepping off the pavement to let gangs of youth walk by. It wouldn’t take much for some of the behaviours seen in nearby town centres to infect our rural utopia. I just hope my DGC make their way through life in relative peace.

Its a horrible country full of horrible people with piss poor morals and mental health. Which is why im staying in today!

I work in a call centre, public facing role advising about the product we make. So not debt collection, cold,calling etc, should be relatively pleasant. Not life or death stuff, just a helpline where people can call for product advice.

Since Covid we have all remarked that people are now mostly arseholes. No one is capable of making a decision, all liability now falls with the manufacturer regardless of how the product is installed or used. We get spoken to like dirt, despite trying to help the customer. People are now generally rude and don’t say please or thank you. No one listens to your advice, everyone wants to do things their way and they want to you agree to it. If you don’t you get push back and more aggro.

I’ve definitely seen a big change in how people are to one another. No idea how it will end

Stamers policies have destroyed our local towns

He's been in office for less than two years, how can he have destroyed your local towns in that short time - what were they like before?

I think some things are worse and some are better. For example, lots of shoplifting is done by people who want money for drugs. A few years ago some of those people would commit car theft, but now that cars are so difficult to steal they’ve moved to shoplifting.

where I live there is a problem with drugs, mainly older people- 30s upwards using crack . But on the other hand I can’t remember the last time I smelt cannabis, whereas 10 years ago the whole place stank, including from teenagers.

I do think there are issues, and I don’t think more than a decade of austerity, covid and the cost of living crisis has helped. Plus we’ve not helped ourselves by abandoning in person shopping, meaning town centres are doing badly

Well despite Khan saying London is a safe city, I read of yet another stabbingro death of a young man going about his business peacefully. If London is so safe why does Khan travel in an armoured vehicle with a retinue of armed guards?
The police are useless we need armed forces patrolling and water cannons.
Oh and proper punishments for actual crime rather than going for the easy targets 😡

I have noticed shoplifting has become more prevalent. I’ve seen several instances recently of people openly walking out of
supermarkets without paying. No one challenges them. I don’t blame the staff tbh. They have to think of their own safety. It’s the brazenness of it that surprises me. No shame whatsoever.

I live in a nice town with rough edges, just outside M25, and shoplifting and drugs are becoming a massive issue.

Local Facebook page yesterday was about groups of kids with knives filling bags with alcohol from supermarkets and nothing being done. We watch them loot the Greg's across the road from my office on a daily basis.

And I walk past a bit of parkland in my way home, used by local dealers because it is near the tube station. I see dryg deals most days - yesterday there were five kids with shopping bags huddled around one guy.

Go and read my post earlier in the thread.

I have lived in my ("naice") town for well over a decade.

Our Sainsbury's Local has gone from

• 2024 No barriers, security or blocked off doors - open store
• 2025 Exit door blocked off
• 2025 Security guard added to monitor the only exit and entrance
• 2026 Plastic divider put up by the till to stop people vaulting it and stealing spirits from behind the checkout
• 2026 Plastic barriers put over chocolate (!) displays as they're regularly scooped off the shelves into bin liners by organised crime types

And this is in a town which has been previously cited in newspapers "best places to commute to London from" etc

Please can people stop posting "stop focusing only on the negative" when there is actually a real spree of this stuff going on in the UK right now?

I can name half a dozen other towns where friends of mine from university have been commenting on similar in our WhatsApp group.

It's frustrating because I'm well aware that sleepyville in gorgeousshire in rural UK doesn't have these problems, and everyone is nice and lends each other sugar etc...

But can we also be factual on this thread?

Over 80% of British people live in towns or urban areas.

EIGHTY percent.

So you can't say that we aren't seeing this. WE are.

Get off social media. Like a pp we had a great Easter. Visited a seaside city - yes the Tesco metro had a security guard at night but didn’t see any incidents. I live near London - great vibrant area. I work in London, The City is thriving, business people striving to thrive. As per many European cities I’ve been to.

I think if people are worried then lead by example, be polite, bring up children with good manners, rather than be outraged about school/a neighbour talking to you about your DC’s behaviour be strict about acceptable behaviour, don’t swear, make sure that your DC don’t. Bring ambition into your life.

I think that's what happens when people lose hope.

Life in the UK has declined in the past decade: people can't buy a home, utility bills are ridiculous, wages are stagnant, health and social services underfunded, overcrowded schools, not enough visible police....

Add to that some right wing politicians and media steering hatred against some minorities. And of course the self inflicted Brexit disaster.

That does not make for a happy country.

I think the UK needs politicians willing to really tackle the cost of living by bringing transport and all utilities in public hands and reverse Brexit.

I’ve voted YABU as throwing litter out the window is hardly a sign of anarchy !

Still, I think something is going to happen. We can’t go on like this.

We used to have spare money and now we don’t. We get no help with anything. What is the point?

People will continue to moan on social media and threaten to start a civil war but in reality, nothing ever happens.

YAB hugely A. Maybe get off Gbeebies and the Daily Heil for a bit and step outside your door.

All serious crime (including robbery and theft) have dropped since 2005, with the exception of fraud.

(Source: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingseptember2025)

And what kids are running riot in Cornwall??!! I live in Cornwall, own several teenagers, and work in a couple of our most deprived towns. Not seen or heard a peep of this.

Yes i am in that 80% and still don't agree with you.