Londonuck

i can hear the sea

Family5

I consider your carefully thought out response has taken this topical, responsible and thought provoking debate to a much lower level. The subject requires no further input from me.

hudd

I agree with you. I moved back to the UK in Autumn 2005. I had no worries about crime in the areas we lived in(Oxfordshire and now SE Kent).

Move to a better area if you not happy about your location as we all have choice in life.

I was talking to two managers from South Africa at work this week about Mail etc knife crime etc being out of control. They can not believe all the fuss in the UK. They told me you have bars on you bedroom doors and lock you car doors before you drive out your garage. I wonder why that is? We do not need steel bars to our berooms at night, but I get the impression the media expects use to be that scared about living in the UK.

They told me that will not leave the UK and return to SA. They belive its a safe country to raise their families.

hudd

derbyflan

Being stamped upon and kicked unconscious to the point that you now need an emergency craniotomy is serious enough. As I said, that's just in a small market town 40 miles outside London that I happen to live in.

As another poster said earlier; most UK towns and cities have the feeling of 'palpable violence' at night time and the same can be said for many during the working day. Unless you live here - which errrrrrrr - I think you no longer do - then you won't notice it nor palpate it. [QUOTE]

derbyflan

Brilliant!

Have you ever thought of a career in the Home Office?

Bevm

Can you point to a source for these? I thought doctors and hospitals were required to report injuries that they suspect are criminal.

There's also the aspect of who's getting injured. Though it's better if no one is, in Canada most of the violence is between criminals and members of the public minding their own business only get injured by accident.

But there certainly have been random acts of violence over here. It's usually a gang of teenagers showing off, or proving something to a gang, or a druggie imagining an insult or reacting to the demons in their head.

There's been a lot of success in places by playing classical music. Twisted minds don't seem to be able to bear it and scuttle off into their holes. A nice bit of Bach in the Tesco parking lot. That's what's needed!

Bev

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

FTLOG

The point is that the prevalence of serious crime is not as bad as a, people fear, and b, the media make out. No one is saying that incidents of serious violent crime dont occur, be it your example or anything else.

And I do live here.

Grayling

I agree......and I live here as well.

G

backagen

I agree completely on the reasons for his downfall, although I still think a lot of people voted him out because it was "time for a change".

Yes, Howard made some big mistakes, but I still say, overall, he did a lot more good than harm, and was the best PM Australia has ever had.

I also hold the opinion that the Australian media contributed a lot to the election result by constantly making such a big deal about how terrible workchoices supposedly was (and I do think it was a flawed policy myself too, but hardly reason enough to vote out the government when they had done such a fantastic job overall), and I do actually think this unduly influenced a lot of voters to vote against the conservatives.

It's a bit like sacking the CEO of a company, who has been in the job 10 years and has enabled the company to grow to 10 times its original size, just because he/she introduced an advertising campaign that flopped, and cost the company a few thousand dollars.

In other words, I don't think some voters really consider the big picture when they decide who to vote for.

Tableland

I live here, for now, and have done for most of my life, and I feel safe in my town - usually. But I won't go into the centre late at night, especially at what used to be called "throwing out time" (throwing up time, more like) and I don't frequent unsavoury areas, mainly because I use words like frequent and unsavoury.

backagen

Very good point, and the same thing applies in most cities in the world I would think.

I you go to nightclubs in the city centre and stay out till 3am, you are obviously much more likely to be a victim of crime.

For those who enjoy such activities, they just need to be aware of the risks and do what they can to keep safe.

For those who hate such activities, like me, there's really not much to worry about!

Grayling

I suppose people's perception of 'danger' varies.

I have never felt afraid to go anywhere in England.......and I have had to go to some pretty 'unsavoury' places.

G

Tableland

Avoid market town centres between 2230 and 0130 and you'll be OK then. This is the only time/place when I have ever seen any trouble or been caught in a fisty-cuffs even. Never in a city. Never in small rural towns or villages.

Crayfish

[QUOTE=derbyflan;6582929]Being stamped upon and kicked unconscious to the point that you now need an emergency craniotomy is serious enough. As I said, that's just in a small market town 40 miles outside London that I happen to live in.

As another poster said earlier; most UK towns and cities have the feeling of 'palpable violence' at night time and the same can be said for many during the working day. Unless you live here - which errrrrrrr - I think you no longer do - then you won't notice it nor palpate it.

I'm moving back to the UK this weekend after 11 months abroad and I've also just come back from a holiday there. I didn't feel any of the "palpable violence" you're talking about anymore than I do here in Stockholm. I did, however, on my travels in Australia feel that there was an overhanging threat of violence frum thuggish Aussie blokes who seemed to dislike us because we were POMs. Americans are similar to aussies in that they have bully boy attitudes and can't stand it when people disagree with them.

It's horrible to hear of the person you know who was assaulted, but believe me, it happens everywhere and the UK is better than most countries. The fact that you (or someone else on this thread) say you walk around towns and cities in Canada and Australia without feeling any threat is presumably because you don't know what the threats are and what to look out for. I have heard of people coming back from South Africa saying they felt more safe there than in the UK!!!! I'm sure you don't need me to tell you just how dangerous South Africa is. You may view the UK as violent, but that is your perception and not a reflection of reality.

Tableland

[QUOTE=Crayfish;6584288] But this is a "biased sample" because you are British, also you have been immersed in a pacifist culture. To make this comparison objective you would have to hang around The Red Lion in Scumton at 11pm with an Australian rugby top on and start talking about how the poms were dickheads.

Just kidding.