Most recent activity
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£14 interest on his savings
Lovely detail. That'll make the accusations of metropolitan liberal elitism from Sunak really land
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Getting a smack in the mouth off a middle class person is just a nicer experience, isn't it. Taste the difference.
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i for one am less peturbed by the noisy moped, or the addict on my steps struggaling as a threat to me or my estate
Interesting you raise that. I live in an ex council block in Leyton and when I first moved in a gang of heroin addicts made our space their base of operations. They left needles everywhere, intimidated residents; one five year old girl witnessed them shooting up, and their mum got abused for asking them to leave. They burgled one of our elderly blind residents, and tried robbing the rest of us too. They nicked stuff from the local area and stashed it in our estate. They harassed the women on the estate. They shat in public and they set fires. They scared people.
Perhaps you genuinely are someone who would find that sort of thing less troubling than the 'privatisation of public space' - though I'd suggest that if you'd experienced it yourself, or through those you loved most in the world, you might revisit that opinion. You're of course entitled to it as is. But it suggests your experience of such things is entirely academic.
Longer term, it is of course a better strategy to eradicate crime not by punishing bad behaviour but rewarding good behaviour. But when you suggest that as the only approach, you effectively de-centre the victims. It's probably true to say that a rapist would benefit more from psychotherapy than prison, in terms of reducing crime; but his victims deserve justice too. Punishment and rehabilitation are both necessary for justice, but punishment is more important to a victim.
It's not the behaviour of a 'white gentrifier' or a 'landlord' or someone who 'isn't active in the local community' to want crime tackled. The young working class immigrant families in my block wanted the issue resolved even more than I did. And until Labour can say without shame that we are in favour of tackling crime and antisocial behaviour, we will be - rightly - excluded from government. This is something ordinary people care about. They are not insulated from it in the way that many who talk about the solely public health approach to crime are.
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his speach on crime is laughable to anyone who doesn't own a 40k kitchen conversion and crosses the road as soon as they see a "youth"
Feels like the opposite to me. It seemed to me to be firmly aimed at those people who live in violent, rundown, crime-ridden areas, and feel - correctly - as though the govt doesn't give a monkeys about them:
In his speech, Starmer said it was “working people who pay the heaviest price” when antisocial behaviour was rife and there was complacency from the government because “their kids don’t go to the same schools, nobody fly-tips on their streets. The threat of violence doesn’t stalk their communities.”
I'm lucky enough to live in quite a nice area now (Leyton) but I grew up in Dagenham, and as a teenager I felt what it was like to grow up where random and severe violence were a daily risk. And I became what they call 'hypervigilant', where you're so on edge for risk that it takes over your life. Of course I didn't know it then, we just thought it was being streetwise. But that's what it was.
And I always wondered, when I went out with middle class people, how they managed to treat the city like a playground rather than an assault course. And that's why. Because they grew up somewhere they didn't have to be ready to fight at a moment's notice.
And back in the days that was a weird experience. But now it's much more common for working people.
The Tories have no idea how bad things are. Starmer is right to highlight it.
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Johnson is getting an absolute kicking here isn't he. Lovely.
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Bit of fire from Starmer today. He still trips over his words but he has the weight to throw around - when he talks about rape conviction rates being so awful, it means something. To Sunak it's just a talking point, and that comes across in the exchange.
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Alright kiddos. Had a bit of a mare with our flat - flogged it a few weeks ago and the guy pulled out two weeks later, which has put us in a sticky situation with our purchase. Anyway it's on for the nonce, and we've relisted our flat, and got two offers.
One is £2k over the minimum we'd accept but it's a cash buyer. One is £10k over the minimum we'd accept but it's a mortgaged buyer.
I've never sold to a cash buyer before. Does it de-risk things or speed them up significantly? Bearing in mind this is a leasehold property so it'll be a long process either way.
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I hear what you're saying, and it's a reasonable analysis, but I don't agree. I keep thinking back to Blair pre-1997; he was so afraid of spooking the horses that he kept schtum about the things he really wanted to do, just the same way that Starmer is now. He's a man carrying a vase over a slippery floor. His reticence is understandable pre-government - any bold decisions create a possible attack line.
But in the first few weeks of government Blair/Brown had decoupled the bank of england exchange rate from the government control and had a working plan to fix the GFA - huge, radical, fundamental changes to the way we work as a country.
If Starmer fails to do the same thing, then I agree with you, he's in for one term. But I just can't see him being that short sighted. There's political calculus in being cautious pre-election; there's absolutely none in being cautious once you're in power given the absolute state of the country.
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There's another option, which is that Labour sees its way to power through convincing a bunch of socially conservative swing voters to vote for them, which means not scaring the bejesus out of them at all costs, even if it means staying quiet on things you're passionate about. Then once you're in, you enact socialist policy, albeit wrapped in the union jack.
I agree with you that we have failed to make the argument for some things, like trans rights, that we really should be. But I also think there's a strategy there, and it's one that's working at the polls.
Oof that thing is sexy af. Nicely done.