Politics Thread 5

[Moggy]

The Conservative government cut police funding and police numbers. The crime rate goes up.

Who gets the blame? The Labour mayor of London!

[Lotus]

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect the mayor of London to react in some way to an increase in moped and other gang crime, regardless of his political persuasion - even if it's just to react to the increase in the media coverage of it. A lot of what I've heard is that he's saying and doing nothing, which seems a bit surprising. I'm not blaming him for the crimes like you seem to be suggesting.

[Benzin]

No other option, Khan must don the cowl of the Batman!

[Preezy]

I would fully support Batman stepping in at this point.

[KK]

You’ll see Khan on Twitter blaming the government, and the government respond by blaming Khan. And back and forth they go..

Still remember how Boris was always on the phone to Osborne and May demanding more money for policing (and getting it). In fact he had so much money he pissed some of it up the wall on water cannons. But at least he delivered on one of the core principles of the Conservative party: law and order.

The priorities are also all wrong. If you’re limited in resources, which they clearly are, then surely it’s common sense to stop focussing so much of it on social media offences and something that may have happened in 1969.

[Garth]

How are crime rates looking in other parts of England?

[Hypes]

Don't care, this is the London thread

[Moggy]

You’ll see Khan on Twitter blaming the government, and the government respond by blaming Khan. And back and forth they go..

So Lotus is wrong that Khan is silent on crime?

Still remember how Boris was always on the phone to Osborne and May demanding more money for policing (and getting it). In fact he had so much money he pissed some of it up the wall on water cannons.

That just adds evidence to the problem being with the government rather than the Mayor. The Conservative Mayor of London was given money by the Conservative government, whereas the Labour Mayor of London isn’t?

But at least he delivered on one of the core principles of the Conservative party: law and order.

Law and order being one of the core principles of the Conservative party has not been true for decades. Cameron and May’s governments have imposed austerity and massive cuts to the police (Johnson begging his colleagues for money may be the exception there). Correlation might not be causation, but it’s pretty clear that cutting police numbers and police budgets is hardly going to lead to a crime free capital city.

The priorities are also all wrong. If you’re limited in resources, which they clearly are, then surely it’s common sense to stop focussing so much of it on social media offences and something that may have happened in 1969.

I don’t know what you mean by 1969, are we talking about Operation Yewtree? If so, then I think it is absolutely right to investigate and prosecute child molesters. I don’t give a gooseberry fool how long ago it was.

I doubt social media offences take too many resources, check Twitter, spot the racist hate crime, knock on the door. Done.

Giving the police the proper resources would mean that they could cut down on physical crime and virtual crimes.

[KK]

Factor out terrorism and crime is down nationally from 2016, but violent offences (guns, knives, acid) is up dramatically. Burglaries and car theft has increased too.

There were almost 20,000 incidents involving scooters last year. Waltham Forest council issued a report revealing that a lot of the perpetrators or leaders in the London area are of Somalian origin, 250 estimated gangs in London, including around 4,500 members. We’re going to need another jail, methinks.

[KK]

I don’t know what you mean by 1969, are we talking about Operation Yewtree? If so, then I think it is absolutely right to investigate and prosecute child molesters. I don’t give a gooseberry fool how long ago it was.

They should absolutely be prosecuted, but if we now find ourselves in a situation where it’s one or the other and who gets away with what, the 70+ pensioner (or in some cases, the dead pensioner) is of small significance when compared to what’s happening to people in 2018.

I would rather the anonymous online troll get away with harassment than a family who have had their house robbed. You’ve basically got no chance there, even with CCTV.

Just so happened to be Michael McIntyre, but so brazen are the criminals there are now people being attacked with hammers while sat in their car outside school gates, it’s ridiculous. Are we now in a place where there’s so much crime celebs are coming to the rescue (‘Sherlock Holmes foils muggers’) like some sort of joke.

[Moggy]

Factor out terrorism and crime is down nationally from 2016, but violent offences (guns, knives, acid) is up dramatically. Burglaries and car theft has increased too.

There were almost 20,000 incidents involving scooters last year. Waltham Forest council issued a report revealing that a lot of the perpetrators or leaders in the London area are of Somalian origin, 250 estimated gangs in London, including around 4,500 members. We’re going to need another jail, methinks.

Or we could just fund things like the police, education and social services properly and cut out a lot of these problems before having to build more jails.

[KK]

Well that’s not going to happen.

[Hypes]

Build a garden bridge instead

[Moggy]

Well that’s not going to happen.

And so the blame for the issues need to be put at the door of the government that is causing the issues, rather than blaming the Mayor of a city, “Somalians” or whatever the hell happened in 1969.

[Squinty]

Alexander Nix is up in front of a committee today. It's being broadcast right now.

He's basically blamed channel 4 for the things he said on camera. LOL.

[KK]

Well I think the Somalian gangs do deserve the blame, they’re the bloody criminals...as the Labour funded report revealed.

[Preezy]

Fight fire with fire. Enact the Rule of the Judges and rename London Brit-Cit

[Irene Demova]

Big European Political news

twitter.com/th1an1/status/1004286235135881216

[KK]

66% of the UK thinks the train service is useless

According to a YouGov survey, 66% of Brits think the rail service is not up to scratch, with only 22% saying it is "somewhat" up to the job. Just 2% of respondents thought the service was excellent.

UKIP voters were the most likely to say they were impressed with the rail service, with 27% saying they thought it was up to the job "a great deal" or "somewhat". UKIP voters however were also the most likely to be unimpressed with the service, 48% saying it wasn't up to the job at all.

Those living in the North of England were more likely to be unhappy with their train operators, with 72% having little or no faith in the service.

[Moggy]

Well I think the Somalian gangs do deserve the blame, they’re the bloody criminals...as the Labour funded report revealed.

Blame the Somali’s for crime? There are a few flaws with your argument.

The year-long study focused on a Waltham Forest gang that calls itself the Mali Boys. A 40-strong grouping, its older members are drawn from the Somali community, while younger members include boys and girls from other backgrounds.

So the leaders are Somali, but the younger ones are not necessarily from that community. And there are 40 of them. I hardly think they are responsible for all of the crime in London.

Clare Coghill, leader of Waltham Forest council, said poverty left young people vulnerable to being drawn into gang activity. “These kids are not doing this to get cars and trainers, they are doing this to get weed and a box of chicken. They are doing this to eat and have a sense of social belonging.”

The council is spending an additional £806,000 on a programme intended to steer children between 10 and 14 away from gangs.

Are you saying we should blame 10 year olds who are so poor that they can’t afford chicken and get into crime due to their poverty?

https://www.theguardian.com/society/201 ... rade-study

Blame the criminals for their actions, that’s fair enough. But you’ll never get rid of this sort of thing while central government is pursuing harsh police cuts and austerity.

And picking out one ethnic group as the cause of societies ills is never the way to go.