dunroving

The media have a lot to answer for - how on Earth can a jumped-up, uneducated pastor with a 50-strong congregation become world headline news? :curse:

fledermaus

The wait times for most MRI scans are less than 6 weeks. The data is in the Dept of Health website.

Victor Meldrew

I can't speak for others, but for me it is probably mainly about these two things. I taught UK secondary in fairly difficult schools for 21 years before making the career/life changing decision to teach overseas. I am familiar with the chavs (both parents and kids) and would never want to have to live in their neighbourhoods/around them.

This is not because I feel too good for them, but that I would feel genuinely threatened on a day to day basis - something which would affect my QoL considerably.

I hope to return to UK within the next 3 years. I am lucky enough to hopefully be able to select a 'nice' (ie safe) area to live in when I return to UK.

aviva

You know I was just thinking that about the loser Pastor from Florida. Trying to stir up trouble to just get his 5 mins of fame.

Easterndawn

My friends and I were discussing that point exactly the other yesterday. Without the media he would of stayed in backwater Florida with his narrow minded flock of so called "Christians". Now he is the talk of the world, is the main concern of the leaders of main nations and has elivated his self importance to where he is now involved in discussing matters that are really none of his business.

jmh

Sometimes I'm amazed at how people talk about crime in the UK. I don't live in a particularly posh are but crime has been falling for years. (I see the stats where I work). The picture is the same nationally although I'm sure you will find pockets that buck the trend. I think we fall victim to some of the media's focus on individual incidents and a lot of collective hang ringing.

Someone on this site looked up the murder rates for the UK and Canada and discovered they were higher in Canada. And NZ has a high crime rate and gang problems but people don't bother to check before they go. If crime was an issue then I would have thought you'd check first.

Anyway I wouldn't worry about changing your mind about the UK. You have now had an opportunity to compare what it is really like elsewhere, which you didn't have before. Always a good idea to update your beliefs in the light of new information.

dunroving

Just one example, but mine took about 3 months, and then the doctor lost the results.

Bevm

On crime after midnight, do you often wander around after midnight, Barbara?

Not a sarky question. Victoria BC, where we used to live, is a lovely and mostly safe city, but it had daylight problems with street-livers with drug and alcohol problems -- and real no-go areas downtown after midnight. That was irrelevant to us because we weren't often out after midnight, and if so we weren't strolling around in those downtown areas. But they weren't slum areas or anything. Right in the heart of tourist-town.

I'd look up crime statistics for an area you'd be interested in and compare it to where you live now, and then try to find out what the crime is. In Victoria, nearly all violence and murder was drug-related and in the drug community. A regular member of the public would be extremely unlikely to have anything to do with it.

Bev

paranoidandroid

One of the most pertinent comments I've read for a long time.

paranoidandroid

Good points. I think you're right about people falling victim to the focus on individual incidents too. One only has to look at the places in the UK where there is very little crime to see that it's generally a decent place to live.

paranoidandroid

Couldn't agree more. The problem being that narrow-minded biggotted attitude of his is all too common here, and while a lot of people in the UK wouldn't expect Florida to be like this, it actually IS.

I'd like to think that his notoriety and high profile will die a quick death once the hype of the event that didn't happen has gone.
True, he's just a jumped up nobody, but unfortunately there are plenty of dangerously unstable fringe element biggots hiding behind a "christian" veil over here, and plenty more that will be singing his praises from all over the country and saying what a good man he is. More importantly to him, they'll be sending his church "donations", which will go into his pocket.
Churches are about money over here, it's a business, and any publicity can be turned into good publicity and a cash opportunity when you have an audience that are so gullible.