seasprite

Hmm, sounds way too high. Mind you I am still trying to get back the 3 months worth of our house buyers usage from our old house. I am not holding my breath

fishfinger

Just been to watch my kids at the local school track event. When I passed through the park I noticed a fenced off area with a big notice saying 'Graffitti clean up' and there was some poor old guy trying to get loads of the stuff off this concrete area. For a moment I had to pinch myself as I felt I was in an Inner city somewhere and not an affluent part of Vancouver.

dbd33

I drove a borrowed car this morning, no satellite radio so I listened to the news from Canada; it was all about a school shooting.

masiosare

Londonuck

Bear in mind that Victoria station was closed because of overcrowding, there was a fire in London Bridge and a train stuck in Earl's court station due to repairs

It's unbelievable, I didn't know if laugh or cry, I was in the tube stopped for about 20 minutes!

jempee

I have a family friend being buried friday. killed by 4 kids in the UK.

Canuck Fan

Oh my, that's very sad to hear. Since returning from Vancouver i've said to many people that I felt safer there than in this country (and I live in good 'ol Ampshire!).

Canuck Fan

I couldn't believe it this morning when I heard on the news that those under 18 yr old thugs were free to go without prosecution having killed that businessman on the streets of Henley-on Thames, seriously shocking. That just about sums this country up.

MadMacGregor

As DB has just commented - the same things happen over here though I suspect that the Canadian media is more interested in reporting on Britney's fashion faux pas.

jempee

And properly exactly the same the 4 who killed our friend in UK will get.

Canuck Fan

I'm fully aware it happens in every city in every country of the world, I still say I feel safer in Vancouver (speaking from a females perspective).

We are experienceing a sudden increase in 'fashionable killings' in the UK which is disturbing in itself. I never heard of so many killings in 1 yr when I was in Van as I have here in 6 months.

Souvenir

When I was in the UK a few weeks ago I talked with my brother about asbos. That system came in after I emigrated so I'm not fully familiar with its workings. My understanding was that they were meant to be some sort of deterrent. It seems not. More of a fashion must-have.

jempee

yep, the kids at the school i worked out thought they were great! They laughed about them. great deterrent.

startwin

And it made huge news across the country - not exactly a regular occurance. I'm having my own mental tussle about staying here or going back to the UK, but I don't pounce on every negative in this country and hold it up as the norm. Speaking from my limited experience of annual visits back to the UK and keeping up with the news from there, I still say that I feel a damned sight safer here in the Vancouver area than back there. If I do go back to the UK to live, I'd like to be able to afford to live in a backwater somewhere quiet! My hometown (UK) newspaper last week carried stories of a dog that was tied up and set fire to; a cat that was stomped to death; an expectant mother stabbed in the abdomen; an elderly man punched for looking at a group of teens. That's just some. I think I'd rather wander down East Hastings at midnight!

The Smiths

I feel a whole lot safer in my little worcestershire village than I did in Toronto. Certainly a whole lot less homeless people!! ITS ALL RELATIVE!!

Sadly the majority of stabbing victims are gang members in big cities. As I do not fit the profile I feel no need to be worried.

My teenage nieces a regulars in the clubs and bars of inner city Birmingham and laugh at my worries for their safety! Could it be a generational thing?

dbd33

Because it's on the back of the Virginia Tech shootings. Certain crimes become fashionable and, for a while, every instance is reported. In an ordinary week some kid gets killed in Toronto and it doesn't even make the local papers.