Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

Can you please tell me what part of soapbox land you live in. Just so I don't move there by mistake!

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

DBD lives in the GTA in the middle of nowhere.........good really ;);)

His life rocks for him, look at his blog, but it would be my worst nightmare come true..............
People its neally new year...peace and goodwill to all men/women :thumbsup::thumbsup:

yogi...Have a great new year, you are neally at the end in the uk, but beginning of the journey here.
We all move for different reason and maybe SOME need to remember that, the uk is not what it used to be, but like i have said so many times before "great place to visit"

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

:rofl: Exactly!

To remove armed, ferral teenagers who prey on each other and kill for territory on their estates, you'd have to have policies that put the victims of crime first.

You'd have to have armed police who were willing to shoot them, lock them up and give them a hard time. Such a firm hand by the state is seen in Liberal-la-la Land as something worse than the problem.

The right wing would bring back national service and channel this teen aggression into something useful - the army - but it won't happen.

The closest we ever get to these issues is for the government to issue fatuous sound-bites about being, 'tough on crime,' and 'tough on the causes of crime'. Nobody believe's this. Nothing is done.

When young thugs sometimes do get taken to court and given some very mild sentence as their lawyers, paid for by the state, quote human-rights legislation, they're laughing at the process. Quite literally, they think we're all stupid for trying to enforce a toothless disciplinary system that they neither respect nor fear.

And they're right not to.

So, when someone suggests a tougher, more frightening, uncompromising alternative in which the smile is slapped off their faces, don't be too quick to complain about the suggestion of having a lack of niceness.

It might be lovely and liberal and ever-so fluffy to think that we should delve into the sociological and psychological origins of anti-social behaviour but it isn't very convincing.

Young criminals are already having a really nice time at our expense. A bit of aversion therapy might be worth a try. How about some serious behaviour modification rather than playing with woolly notions as if liberals knew anything about anything and could somehow make every day the first day of spring?

Ring a bell db? ;)

Y

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

Why yes, I think I read something similar in the Telegraph. Letter from Digusted of Dorking (Lt. Col. Retd.) if I recall correctly.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

A bit beyond the GTA really, the CNN tower is 75 miles approximately south south east of us.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

One of the reasons we moved from England was the yobs and kids and all that crap. We moved to Canada because we couldnt afford to move to a nicer, better area, although the area we lived in wasn't rough, a pleasant, if dull, small town in Bedfordshire.

We don't have close family ties etc so it was easy to move away. It's taken a while to settle, I hated our first house and the area we lived in. In retrospect I think I would have looked more into staying in the UK and finding a different area to live in, as on balance it has more to offer than Canada. Don't let the yobs force you out if you feel that being away from your family will be intolerable. If there is anyway you can move within the UK then you may be better off in the long run.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

Well that is indeed refreshing as it seemed to me England had gone to the dogs, or at least some parts of it.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

Of course newspapers in the UK over sensationlise everything, what way ID cards can be brought in and then we can all truly live in fear ..

I have found with Canada/Americaen people are murdered, its santa killing ex-wife and inlaws + others wife stabs hubby, brother stabs other brother .. These people KNOW their killers ..
In England its very random .. kids walking through park, jumped on as they look different and killed .. adults telling kids to piss off and move their loutish behaviour elsewhere and being attacked and killed .. Already said it .. The UK is an angry country .. Each to their own and look after number 1 .. My son on his first year of secondary school was savagly attacked by some girl and he took it from her .. the school rang me and said that they knew Ivan would never of done anything to upset anyone but the problem is the girl comes from an abusive family so we have to be sympathetic to her ..
EXCUSE ME .. ACCOUNTABILITY .. that is what is lacking in the UK ..

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

Agreed but we know by now that the other person is almost certainly winding the thread up, or is curiously detached and unwilling to accept of the UK-wide experiences of all the previous posters . :confused:

For those in want of some interesting reading I would point my browser to the following articles. The point all of them make is that perception is relative to the eye of the beholder and where you live. By examining the national average of these viewpoints, the general perception seems to be that the country's moral, economic and social fabric is most certainly in decline and PERCEIVED as thus by all age groups. Although the last 10 years’ statistics point to violent crime reducing, it is the perception of people which is important, as this basic fundamental is directly related to perceived quality of life. This negative perception is UK WIDE and not peculiar to socio-economic geogrpahical areas or income:



“Crime in England and Wales 2007/08 “- A summary of the Govt report

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdf...sb0708summ.pdf

BBC - At a glance: Crime statistics 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6906554.stm

“CCTV: UK population most watched nation on earth” – shocking statistics from 2004

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk...pe-561265.html


"Can our broken society be fixed?" (Tory Opposition comment, but accurate despite this failing)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/3...-be-fixed.html


"Has there been a decline in values in British society? – Independent study

http://www.jrf.org.uk/knowledge/find...y/pdf/2279.pdf

;)

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

So things are getting better but people think they're getting worse?

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

Or are they being accounted for differently? I used to be a governor at my children's school. Both of my girls in one term had very serious accidents, one tore a muscle or something in her ankle and was on crutches for 8 weeks, the other ran into a wall and needed stitches. On both these occasions I was contacted by the school to come and get the kids and take them to hospital. With the head injury I had a hysterical teacher yelling at me to hurry up (a 7 minute journey took 3 minutes as I went through red lights and all sorts to get there - plus I worked round the corner from the hospital so was begging them to get her in an ambulance so that I could meet her there rather than drive to school and drive all the way back again)

At the governors meeting "no accidents" were reported, when I queried this I was told that it was my "choice" to take the kids to hospital and that an accident is only reported when the school has to put a kid in an ambulance. By virtue of the fact that I was telephoned and told to take the kids myself meant that it didn't have to be officially reported.

You can make statstics read anything you want them to read with very little effort.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

U cant beeleev the guvmint them lyers. U cun proof anythink wid statistiks, we all now that the cuntrys gone to the dogs. Pinko liberal commie luver.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

That may be true. dbd33 often says knife crime is bigger in the UK because guns are easier to obtain in Canada, so why bother with knives?

Fortunately gun violence impacts on few people's lives. Unsocial behaviour, petty crime etc blights so many more lives and certainly appears to impact on more people in more places more often in the UK than in Canada.

As for the argument that it's perception of worsening crime/reduced morality rather than actual worsening crime, I have no idea. I do know that stats can lie and be made to mean anything. I also know that crime stats have been manipulated and discredited with the recent admission they were recorded in the wrong categories.

But 'Perception' doesn't mean that what one thinks is automatically wrong or unsound.

When I started work at the DSS, most people I saw on the public counter were friendly. When I finished there, most people didn't even say hello, bye or thanks. I was spat at more in a typical week at the end than in my first 20 years. My perception but also reality.

I had no real complaints about the area of Bristol I lived in before I moved to Canada. But people shouting in the streets at night, gathering outside the pub en masse and blocking the pavement, racing around in cars through narrow streets etc etc was most certainly not something that happened regularly when I first moved there. None of these incidents are reflected in crime stats, accurate or otherwise.

Once upon a time you'd reach the vandalised bus shelter/phone box and people would be shaking their heads, muttering in dismay. Now nobody bats an eyelid. Is that because people's attitudes to the act of vandalism has changed or is it because it's no longer a surprise to see it?
Both are cause to worry.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

I think some of it has, it certainly is more aggressive than here. More crowded, more dirty. On the other hand if you can find a decent place to live away from hassles etc then that might be a better option than putting an ocean between you and your family.

Canada has stuff that irritates the hell out of me, as does the UK. Neither is perfect and it's a worry to think that people might move here without realising the downside to the place. Or maybe you can't until you live here. We didn't, and I had read about it often enough on this forum.

Re: Bittersweet Christmas
 

I fought as much.