Trivial things you don't understand/mildly annoy you

[Jimmy Quinn]

Youths chasing each other with machetes near the sea front in Southend. What the fuck has happened to our once Great Britain.

[Nemo]

Youths chasing each other with machetes near the sea front in Southend. What the fuck has happened to our once Great Britain.

Rolling 24 hours news coverage targeted at people who want to be told things were better in the olden days?

Bad shit happens. Always has. We just used to not constantly be told about everything happening in every corner of the nation and be able to see video footage of it along with the reckonings of a hundred Twitter experts.

[Jimmy Quinn]

Rolling 24 hours news coverage targeted at people who want to be told things were better in the olden days?

Bad shit happens. Always has. We just used to not constantly be told about everything happening in every corner of the nation and be able to see video footage of it along with the reckonings of a hundred Twitter experts.

Social media spreads bad news fast then you get rival gangs copying as they think it’s the norm. Also where an earth do you legally buy a machete!

[4D]

I see the piece of shit who stabbed those girls turns 18 in a
 week. Can he be tried as an adult?

[Broadbents Tackle]

Rolling 24 hours news coverage targeted at people who want to be told things were better in the olden days.

It perplexes me that people feel nostalgic about what it was like when they were young, compared to what they see on screens now. The country felt way more violent when I was growing up in the 90's, something that is backed up by statistics but comes more from the fact that it was all around me.

Many of a previous generation remember how dangerous football was in the 70s and 80s, and that's somehow dismissed rather than set against what they see? Or how about the mods and the rockers smashing up seaside towns in the 60s?

[Audrey]

There’s a difference between getting a thump at the football and people regularly stabbing each other.

And the fact that the vast majority of these stabbings are black youths stabbing other black youths shouldn’t be ignored. There are thousands of disaffected young black men with absolutely nothing else in their lives.

[4D]

I got into scraps in the 80s and 90s, nothing since then. So I agree with you BT 

Mostly cowards these days, 5 onto 1 or using weapons.

[Broadbents Tackle]

There’s a difference between getting a thump at the football and people regularly stabbing each other.

And the fact that the vast majority of these stabbings are black youths stabbing other black youths shouldn’t be ignored. There are thousands of disaffected young black men with absolutely nothing else in their lives.

You don't remember all the stabbings at or around football matches, particularly in the 80s? Or just in towns and cities across the country at that time?

Agree with your second point. I'm not saying there's not a problem.

[Audrey]

No, I don’t remember stabbings/murders in the 80s and 90s - not at the football. If there was the occasional fracas I certainly don’t remember many, if any, dying on what is almost a daily occurrence now on the streets.

The 2 are in no way comparable.

[Nemo]

https://www.statista.com/statistics/978830/knife-homicides-in-england-and-wales/

So this data only goes back as far as 2008, I'll look for more, but here's knife-involved murders over time. It looks pretty steady, maybe a slight upward curve over the last few years? Interestingly it doesn't dip at all during Covid like most crime does.

Edit: it seems prior to 2007 records weren't kept about the specific involvement of knives in violent crime, which isn't helpful. If you actually want some data analysis on this, this is genuinely interesting: https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN04304/SN04304.pdf it does include some less complete data back to the 70s

[Audrey]

I know statistics can be misleading but this is alarming. Can be no doubt about the correlation between the dramatic fall in police stop and searches and the increase in knife crime. You may extrapolate that the very thing the, mainly, black community rallied against, is actually fuelling the rise in knife crime.

[Nemo]

So that's evidence for stop and search being used less, where is the corresponding evidence for an increase in knife crime? The official statistics I've provided above, knife based homicides are essentially static over that period.

[Audrey]

https://benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-statistics/

[Jimmy Quinn]

The way things are going a civil war beckons.

[Mexicano Rojo]

43 degrees here, might put my shorts on