Well here in small town bedfordshire, our street will be celebrating the new year by having the wing mirrors on our cars repaired. The local youth thought it would be fun to smash them all, and to throw bottles at the houses.

I doubt many of you in Canada had such a fun time and have had to make to do with friendly good wishes

I wish you all a happy and healthy new year

xx

And yet another reason to leave the UK!!! Lets hope some of the little b******s cut themselves on the glass! - but dont worry, you will soon have to pay even more council tax for the lack of police on the streets to allow this sort of thing to happen

We live in Bucks and the probs are just the same. Not that for one minute I dont believe that Canada has its own problems but it seems to be getting worse by the minute here doesnt it.

Anyway - rant over and I'll clime down off my soap box

Happy New Year to all and keep counting the days till you leave this green & pleasant land

we are only a mile from bucks.......

whereabouts? - we are near Aylesbury

us too, i'll pm you!

Canadian youths aren't little angels who stay home and help their mothers bake cookies you know

After having his truck "tagged" with a fetching shade of red spray paint for the umpteenth time, a Winnipeg acquaintance went on honeymoon recently and came back to no truck at all - the little b*ggers had stolen it...

Serve and Protect didn't exactly do a good PR job for the drug crazed street folk of Winnipeg did it ?

Anyway on to the above posts, no Canada isn't Shangri-La and has problems, even in small quiet rural areas, those problems lie below the surface of your radar when you first visit.

My 2c reveals that there seem to be less social stresses/tensions here and generally speaking less incidence of unpleasantness from yoof or adults here. Tho a quick flick of the headlines always reveals something from a picklist of gruesome gang activity, unusual deaths (chopping up and dispersing, fingers-or-ears-taken-as-evidence etc) :scared: psychotic drug crazed madness, violent crime, holdups, muggings etc but the fact that they are reported and stand out from the usual news says something. Search news headlines for crystal methamphetamine and you will see the social problems which Canada faces.

Certainly not the gangs of chavs, marauding bladdered yoof, stag and hen nights puking in the streets, kebab wrappers and dog crap underfoot, etc which is a part of daily life in part of the UK (not all, I would state clearly). Public drunkenness is far less accaptable here, tho I would imagine private drunkenness, drug abuse, spouse abuse etc all prevail. It would probably be fair to say that the events which happen may get far more extreme than the UK but happen less often and more often involve criminals not regular folks.

There is certainly a clear difference over here which does make an intangible but positive impact on quality of life.

Rich.

What's serve and protect, sounds like a police motto - is it a TV show?

It's that show where they go out with RCMP officers on the front line, handling all societys outcats, misfits and sad cases, think it runs on the mens channel daily. Doesn't really show North Vancouver, Burnaby, Edmonton and Winnipeg in a good light (they were the participating locations) - should be essental viewing for the rose-tinted-shades brigade, but then again it is easy to get a skewed stereotypical image of the places concerned from that program.

Some of the states on that program tho it makes for grim viewing.

Rich.

A few interesting random links reporting New Years below.

Regarding our own region of BC, let's say for ease 250,000 people in total, with probably less than 60 arrests. Compare that with the complete carnage and vioelnt rampage in Grimsby reported below from the BBC. Comparing apples and pears perhaps ? Tell that to the poor buggers living in Grimsby suffering that lind of behaviour !


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/4573406.stm

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ne...4-03e1fbee0bc5

http://castanet.net/edition/news-sto...0-1-.htm#15020

Rich.

I was never naive enough to believe that all is perfect in Canada, and i think i have enough common sense and observation not to have the rose tinted specs on but something has seriously gone wrong with english society in the past few years.

I moved here from London 9 years ago, felt safe walking home at night, now you wouldnt catch me anywhere near the town centre on a friday or saturday night. This is a small town, not inner city, no areas of deprivation, good schools, nice houses. In the past 3 years our row of houses has had eggs and bottles thrown at them, we have had a bottle through the window into our living room at midnight on a saturday. The park opposite has an exclusion order on it and CCTV cameras have been installed. These kids are from ordinary homes, but they seem to have no concept of consideration for others, respect for others property, respect for their environment. I have no idea why. It saddens me.I worry that my husband will decide to go out and shout at these kids and get attacked in response.

My friends in canada have children, i have seen them grow up and in the main they dont behave like that,(though one has gone seriously off the rails poor love), my friends here have teenage children and their parents are constantly worried about what happens to them, drugs are sold on the village green, "respectable" kids sell their bikes, mp3 players etc to get drugs, alcopops.

rambling again, and without the use of emoticons to try and put my thoughts over.

I know it probably looks like I expect Canada to be the promised land but believe me I dont. I realise that there are problems wherever you go in the world.

But, being part of the emergency services I get to see first hand every day & night of the week quite how bad things are getting here in the UK and how the police are powerless to stop it happening due to having been made virtually powerless and also due to the sheer number of crimes and anti-social behaviour being committed. Anti-social behaviour gets worse by the month - I'm a paramedic and far from some people being glad to see us when they are hurt or injured they seem to think that it is their right to be rude, abusvie and threatening. Most Friday & Saturday nights we get, at the very least, verbally abused by drunken idiots. It sickens me to go out to elderly folk who have been beaten up/mugged/robbed and generally terrorised in places that they have lived all their lives. Or to go out to someone who's husband/wife/son/daughter has just been killed by a drunk driver (who normally walks away with a few scratches, shows no remorse & will probably get away with a fine, loss of licence for a few months & maybe a couple of months in prison). Stabbings, shootings, vicious assaults - its all a common occurance now - and this is in a nice, affluent area of the Home Counties - not inner city!

I know Canada has its fair share of problems - I read the news reports and hear of the inner city problems. But I think that the post above sounding so shocked about the man who had his truck stolen whilst he was on honeymoon says it all. The fact that this is considered to be a bad thing (which of course it is) - when here this would not even warrant one line in the local rag.

I have spent time living in various coutries in Europe. Everywhere has its problems - some countries worse than others - but at least other countries seem to have some intolerance towards anti-social behaviour and crime. Here in the UK it seems that the only people who have 'rights' are those who commit the crimes - and our wonderful PC brigade who now seem to govern our country are only fuelling this breakdown in society.

Blimey - just re-read what I've written and it sounds like i'm on a crusade!!! Please let me emphasis that I do really love my job and not every call out is to a alcohol induced vomit machine wielding a machete!!

Its just really sad that the lunatics really do seem to be taking over the asylum here in the UK!

Good analogy.....I think it's fait to say that comparing the UK to Canada, well the lunatics here have got together, formulated their plan, and implemented some of it, but are lagging a few years behind the UK. They seem not to have taken over the asylum quite yet due to having more opposition from the Canadian public, but dammit they are certainly doing their best to take over.

Sure are plenty of lunatics tho, and the visibly underprivelidged living in poverty, marginalised, out of the system, seriously ill and homeless are their victims.

Rich.

No, it didn't shock me (or him) - I was just saying that you won't escape teens damaging property by moving here. It wasn't news, just something that happened to a guy who does some work for us...sadly things have to be a lot worse to make the headlines in Winnipeg!

Rich, I've just scanned our cable and no Men TV, seems to be subscription only. I'm blocking it now in case Mr B gets any ideas...sounds like they don't just show RCMP reality shows?!

Nah, it's part of the extra packages I think, MenTV shows just progs for the motorheads and suchlike not those iffy films I keep seeing flicking up on the PPV channel listings..... "Debbie Does a Dozen Decorators" and the like

Rich.